I've seen code in programs where I work where people create a character variable from another character variable using the put function.  What's the point? For example: I know here that they are trying to add 50 to the positions 12:13 inside the character variable hrlongid. length serial $2; length newsn 8; serial=put(substr(hrlongid,12,2),$2.); newsn=serial+50; substr(hrlongid,12,2)=newsn; Wouldn't the last statement have to replace positions 12:13 with another character variable? Why can't serial just be substr(hrlongid,12,2)? ... View more