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LENGTH

LENGTH



Specifies the number of bytes that the SAS System uses to store a variable's value

Valid: in a DATA step
UNIX specifics: valid numeric variable lengths


Syntax
See Also

Syntax

LENGTH <variable-1><...variable-n> <$> length <DEFAULT=n>

length
can range from 3 to 8 for numeric variables under UNIX. The minimum length you can specify for a numeric variable depends on the floating-point format used by your system. Because most systems use the IEEE floating-point format, the minimum is 3 bytes.

DEFAULT=n
changes the default number of bytes that are used for storing the values of newly created numeric variables from 8 to the value of n. Under UNIX, n can range from 3 to 8.


See Also


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