I create a format using proc format cntlin:     data Fmt(keep=FMTNAME TYPE START LABEL HLO); retain FMTNAME 'Fmt' type 'C'; set dataset END=EOF; where CitShare ne .; start=market; label=CitShare; output; if EOF; HLO='O'; LABEL='.'; output; run; proc format cntlin=Fmt library=work; run; Everything looks good. The label variable in the Fmt dataset is numeric. But later when I use the format, it converts to numeric.  data cit_join; set cit_markets; CitShare=put(market,$Fmt.); run; cit_join has CitShare as a character variable.  What am I doing wrong? How can I make it stay numeric? I even try to then convert it to numeric and it doesn't work: data join; set join; CitShare = input(CitShare, best32.); run; log reads:  NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column). 31:13     ... View more

I have an Excel file with NDCs and Categorys. Here is a sample from it:   NDC Category 00536114941 NSAID 00536308610 NSAID 00536308641 NSAID 00536331301 NSAID 00536331310 NSAID 00603002622 NSAID 57881033632 Opioid 57881033832 Opioid 00093005001 Opioid-other 00093015001 Opioid-other 69344011111 Opioid-NSAID 69344021111 Opioid-NSAID etc...   I want to create a %LET statement in SAS using the Excel sheet that would do the same thing as:   %LET NSAID = 00536114941 00536308610 00536305641 00536331301 00536331310 00603002622; %LET Opioid = 57881033632 578810832; %LET Opioid_other = 00093005001 00093015001; %LET Opoioid_NSAID = 69344011111 69344021111;   But I want to make it so that if I make changes to the Excel sheet, it will automatically update in SAS--that is I want to use SAS code that creates a %LET statement FROM the Excel file, not copy paste from Excel into SAS. ... View more