To get the names, use GETNAMES=YES or leave that option out and just specify the range starts at A2. If you know the ending of the range of data and this is a one time import it's sometimes useful to specify the end of the range, ie A2:J28 ... View more

Yes. PROC SQL; CREATE TABLE D AS SELECT A.* , B.PRC_DAY_AFTER , (A.INITIAL_OFFER-B.PRC_DAY_AFTER)/B.PRC_DAY_AFTER as GAP FROM D_MERGER AS A , D_PRC AS B WHERE A.DEALNO=B.DEALNO ; QUIT; ... View more

Use the colon modifier to prevent formatted input (which will ignore the delimiters), and assign display formats: input permno init_data :yymmdd10. cusip $ end_data :yymmd10.; format init_data end_data yymmdd10.; ... View more