Chapter Contents
Previous
Next
$VARYINGw.

$VARYINGw.


Writes character data of varying length

Valid: in DATA step
Category: Character
Alignment: left

Syntax
Syntax Description
Details
Examples
Example 1: Obtaining a Variable Length Directly
Example 2: Obtaining a Variable Length Indirectly

Syntax

$VARYINGw. length-variable

Syntax Description

w
specifies the maximum width of the output field for any output line or output file record.
Default: 8 if the length of the variable is undefined; otherwise, the length of the variable
Range: 1-32767

length-variable
specifies a numeric variable that contains the length of the current value of the character variable. SAS obtains the value of the length-variable by reading it directly from a field that is described in an INPUT statement, reading the value of a variable in an existing SAS data set, or calculating its value.
Requirement: You must specify length-variable immediately after $VARYINGw. in a SAS statement.
Restriction: Length-variable cannot be an array reference.
Tip: If the value of length-variable is 1 or missing, SAS writes nothing to the output field. If the value of length-variable is greater than 0 but less than w, SAS writes the number of characters that are specified by length-variable.

Details

Use $VARYINGw. when the length of a character value differs from record to record. After writing a data value with $VARYINGw., the pointer's position is the first column after the value.

Examples

Example 1: Obtaining a Variable Length Directly

An existing data set variable contains the length of a variable. The data values and the results follow the explanation of this SAS statement: 

put @10 name $varying12. varlen;
NAME is a character variable of length 12 that contains values that vary from 1 to 12 characters in length. VARLEN is a numeric variable in the same data set that contains the actual length of NAME for the current observation.

Values* Results 


  


----+----1----+----2----+








  


New York 8


  


         New York








  
Toronto
7
  
       
 Toronto






  


Buenos Aires 12


  


         Buenos Aires








  


Tokyo 5


  


         Tokyo







*The  value of NAME appears before the value of VARLEN. 








 Example 2: Obtaining a Variable Length Indirectly 




 Use the LENGTH function to determine the length of a variable. The data values
and the results follow the explanation of these SAS statements: 




varlen=length(name);
put @10 name $varying12. varlen;
The assignment statement determines
the length of the varying-length variable. The variable VARLEN contains this
length and becomes the length-variable argument
to the $VARYING12. format.










  
Values*
  
Results






  




  


----+----1----+----2----+








  


New York


  


         New York








  


Toronto


  


         Toronto








  


Buenos Aires


  


         Buenos Aires








  


Tokyo


  


         Tokyo







*The  value of NAME appears before the value of VARLEN. 

















Chapter Contents		



Previous		



Next		



Top of Page		



Copyright 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.