Figured out whats wrong. it was my oversight with some typo. Instead of OUTREC it should have been OUT_REC.. :smileysilly: I also did what Larry suggested above. Thanks for your help and time. ... View more

SAS Release 9.3  - and I am using it in Mainframes. I did try to assign the value in code as done above - and it works fine in that case. But, it is not working in the full code that I posted. ... View more

I did not want to confuse with other logic that were in the code. Here is the code. SYSOUT record that we are concerned WER054I  RCD IN     10000, OUT     154416 Input Parm file (there are other rows which are hardcoded values and does not need any substitution) Total record count is: ####   Output Records: ###           CODE: /* This step extracts counts from SYSOUT from previous SORT step*/ DATA SYSOINF(KEEP=COUNT);                                                 INFILE I1INPUT TRUNCOVER;                                              INPUT @3 SYNCINF $CHAR7. @;                                              IF SYNCINF = "WER054I" THEN                                               INPUT @1 INREC $CHAR80.;                                            ELSE DELETE;                                                           TOTAL = PUT((COMPRESS(SCAN(INREC,2,'OUT'))),15.);                      COUNT  = INPUT(TOTAL,9.);                                                                                                                PROC PRINT DATA=SYSOINF;TITLE "SYSOINF";RUN;         /* This is the input parm file */ DATA DEF;                                                              INFILE I1PARM END=EOF;                                                 INPUT @1 OUT_REC $CHAR80.;                                                                                                                    PROC SQL;                                                              CREATE TABLE LOGOUT AS                                                   SELECT DEF.*,SYSOINF.* FROM DEF,SYSOINF;                                                                                                   PROC PRINT DATA=LOGOUT;TITLE "LOGOUT";RUN;                                                                                                    DATA _NULL_;                                                           SET LOGOUT;                                                            LENGTH OUT_RECD $80.;                                                  LENGTH COUNTC $9.; COUNTC = (PUT(COUNT,Z9.));                          PUT COUNTC;                                                                                                                                   FILE O1OUTPUT;                                                         IF SCAN(OUTREC,2,':') = "####" THEN                                       OUT_RECD = CAT(SCAN(OUT_REC,1,'####'),COUNTC);            /* counts with zeros */          ELSE                                                                      OUT_RECD = SCAN(OUT_REC,1,'###') || COMPRESS(COUNT);      /* counts without zeros */                                                                                     PUT @1   OUT_RECD  $CHAR80.;  OUTPUT ********************************* Top of Data ********************************** Total record count is: 10000                                                    Output Records: 10000                                                           ******************************** Bottom of Data ******************************** Output                                        ... View more

Thanks a million. ... View more

Here is an example for the same code.                      INPUT1                          Obs     ID        NUM       STATE              1     00043    12345678                       2     00083    12345678                       3     00401    12345678     PA                             INPUT2                               Obs      NUM       STATE                       1     12345678     PA                               MERGE OF INPUT1 & INPUT2                 Obs     ID        NUM       STATE              1     00043    12345678     PA   (override from INPUT2's STATE)             2     00083    12345678          (Spaces - no override from INPUT2's STATE)            3     00401    12345678     PA            For a code to be consistent - it should either override the common field's missing values in all the rows - or should not override at all. I am surprised how SAS just overrides the first row alone (irrespective of whether there is a missing value or not). Thanks for your time and help - it helped me to understand how Merge works in this bizarre situations. ... View more

Thanks. So - the first row will always be overridden with the value from Table2 for the common fields. The rest of the rows will not be overridden (if there are more than 1 or 2 rows). Is there a way to stop the first row from always getting overridden? If not - its not logical for a code to override just the first row's missing value and ignore the rest - right? ... View more

Thanks for the reply. If that is the case, then in Merge2 - the first row does not have a value for STATE - yet it is still overridden by the STATE from second table. Why is that? ... View more

Here you go.   DATA INPUT0;                                                          INPUT ID $1-2 NUM $3-11 STATE $13-14;                               CARDS;                                                             83 12345678                                                          4A 12345678 PA                                                         ;                                                                    RUN;                                                                 PROC SORT DATA=INPUT0; BY ID NUM;                                    PROC PRINT DATA=INPUT0; TITLE 'INPUT0';                                                                                                   DATA INPUT1;                                                          INPUT ID $1-5 NUM $7-14 STATE $16-17;                               CARDS;                                                             00083 12345678                                                       00401 12345678 PA                                                      ;                                                                    RUN;                                                                 PROC SORT DATA=INPUT1; BY ID NUM;                                    PROC PRINT DATA=INPUT1; TITLE 'INPUT1';                                                                                                   DATA INPUT2;                                                          INPUT NUM $1-8 STATE $10-11;                                        CARDS;                                                             12345678 PA                                                            ;                                                                    PROC SORT DATA=INPUT1; BY NUM;                                       PROC PRINT DATA = INPUT2; TITLE 'INPUT2';                                                                                                 DATA ALL (KEEP=ID NUM STATE);                                         MERGE INPUT0 (IN=A) INPUT2 (IN=B); BY NUM;                            PROC PRINT DATA=ALL; TITLE 'MERGE OF INPUT0 & INPUT2';                                                                                    DATA ALL1 (KEEP=ID NUM STATE);    MERGE INPUT1 (IN=A) INPUT2 (IN=B); BY NUM;                                                                                   PROC PRINT DATA=ALL1; TITLE 'MERGE OF INPUT1 & INPUT2';      ... View more