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$CHARw.

Category:

Character

Syntax Description

w

specifies the width of the input field.

Default:	8 if the length of the variable is undefined; otherwise, the length of the variable
Range:	1-32767

Details

The $CHARw. informat does not trim leading and trailing blanks or convert a single period in the input data field to a blank before storing values. If you use $CHARw. in an INFORMAT or ATTRIB statement within a DATA step to read list input, then by default SAS interprets any blank embedded within data as a field delimiter, including leading blanks.

Comparisons

• The $CHARw. informat is almost identical to the $w. informat. However $CHARw. does not trim leading blanks or convert a single period in the input data field to a blank, while the $w. informat does.

• Use the table below to compare the SAS informat $CHAR8. with notation in other programming languages:

  Language	Character Notation
  SAS	$CHAR8.
  IBM 370 assembler	CL8
  C	char [8]
  COBOL	PIC x(8)
  FORTRAN	A8
  PL/I	CHAR(8)

  
  

Examples

input @1 name $char5.;

Data Lines	Results*
----+----1
XYZ	XYZ##
XYZ	#XYZ#
.	##.##
X YZ	#X#YZ
*The character # represents a blank space.

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