Changing the Length of Character Values (2)

Reading Free-Format Data

Changing the Length of Character Values

The LENGTH Statement

You can assign the length of a character variable by using the LENGTH statement.

General form, LENGTH statement using list input:
LENGTH variable <$> length;

where

variable names the variable to be assigned a length
$ indicates the preceding variable is a character variable
length is an integer that specifies the length of the variable.

You can assign the same length to more than one variable in a single LENGTH statement.

     length LastName FirstName $ 20;

Or, you can assign different lengths to variables in a single LENGTH statement.

     length LastName $ 20 FirstName $ 15

In the example below, a length of 12 has been assigned to accommodate PHILADELPHIA, which is the longest value for City.

     length City $ 12;

1---+----10---+----20---+----

ANCHORAGE 48081 174431

ATLANTA 495039 425022

BOSTON 641071 562994

CHARLOTTE 241420 314447

CHICAGO 3369357 3005072

DALLAS 844401 904078

DENVER 514678 492365

DETROIT 1514063 1203339

MIAMI 334859 346865

PHILADELPHIA 1949996 1688210

SACRAMENTO 257105 275741

Remember, variable attributes are defined when the variable is first encountered in the DATA step. In the program below, the LENGTH statement precedes the INPUT statement and defines both the length and type of the variable City.

     data perm.growth;
        infile citydata;
        length City $ 12;
        input city $ Pop70 Pop80;
     run;
     proc print data=perm.growth;
     run;

Using this method, it is not necessary to specify City's type in the INPUT statement. However, leaving the $ in the INPUT statement will not produce an error. Your output should now display the complete values for City.

Obs	City	Pop70	Pop80
1	ANCHORAGE	48081	174431
2	ATLANTA	495039	425022
3	BOSTON	641071	562994
4	CHARLOTTE	241420	314447
5	CHICAGO	3369357	3005072
6	DALLAS	844401	904078
7	DENVER	514678	492365
8	DETROIT	1514063	1203339
9	MIAMI	334859	346865
10	PHILADELPHIA	1949996	1688210
11	SACRAMENTO	257105	275741

Reading Free-Format Data
Changing the Length of Character Values