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VARLEN

Category:

SAS File I/O

Arguments

data-set-id

specifies the data set identifier that the OPEN function returns.

var-num

specifies the number of the variable's position in the SAS data set.

Tip:	This number is next to the variable in the list that is produced by the CONTENTS procedure.

Tip:	The VARNUM function returns this number.

Comparisons

VLENGTH returns the compile-time (allocated) size of the given variable.

Examples

• This example obtains the length of the variable ADDRESS in the SAS data set MYDATA.

  %let dsid=%sysfunc(open(mydata,i));
  %if &dsid %then
     %do;
        %let len=%sysfunc(varlen(&dsid,
                         %sysfunc(varnum
                         (&dsid,ADDRESS))));
        %let rc=%sysfunc(close(&dsid));
     %end;

• This example creates a data set that contains the name, type, and length of the variables in MYDATA.

  data vars;
     length name $ 8 type $ 1;
     drop dsid i num rc;
     dsid=open("mydata","i");
     num=attrn(dsid,"nvars");
     do i=1 to num;
        name=varname(dsid,i);
        type=vartype(dsid,i);
        length=varlen(dsid,i);
        output;
     end;
     rc=close(dsid);
  run;

Functions: OPEN VARNUM

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