Charlotte,   The $w formats expect to find character strings as the incoming values.  Leave out the dollar sign and the software expects a numeric as the incoming value.   If you specify a width that is wider than the numeric value:   newvar = put(12345678, 10.);   You get a leading blank (or as many leading blanks as needed) to fill out the resulting string.  Note that the PUT function always returns a character string regardless of whether the format is numeric or character.   When in doubt, experiment.  You can always check your results with something like this:   newvar2 = '*' || newvar || '*'; put newvar2=;   People who are trying to learn are never a bother.  Merry Christmas to you as well.     ... View more