SAS Data Sets (5)

Basic Concepts

SAS Data Sets

Variable Attributes: Name

Each variable has a name that conforms to SAS naming conventions. Variable names must

be 1 to 32 characters in length
begin with a letter (A-Z, including mixed case characters) or an underscore (_)
continue with any combination of numbers, letters, or underscores.

In the example below, the variable names are Policy, Total, and Name.

Variable Type Length Format Informat Label

Policy Num
8

Policy Number

Total Num
8
DOLLAR8.2 COMMA10. Total Balance

Name Char
20
Patient Name

These are additional examples of valid variable names:

Height
GLUCOSE_TOLERANCE_READING
AmountBudgeted_1999

Your site may choose to restrict variables names to those valid in Version 6 SAS software, to uppercase variable names automatically, or to remove all restrictions on variable names.