General form, LENGTH statement: LENGTH variable(s) length; where variable(s) names the variable(s) to be assigned a length length is an integer that specifies the length of the variable.   To specify the length of a character variable, add a dollar sign  ($) after the variable name:   LENGTH variable $ length;

Examples: length Type $ 8; length Address1 Address2 Address3 $ 200; length FirstName $ 12 LastName $ 16; Within your program, you include a LENGTH statement to assign a length to accommodate the longest value of the variable Type. The longest value is Variable, which has eight characters. Because Type is a character variable, you must follow the variable name with a dollar sign ($). data finance.newloan; set finance.records(drop=amount rate); length Type $ 8; TotalLoan+payment; if code='1' then Type='Fixed'; else Type='Variable'; run;

Make sure the LENGTH statement appears before any other reference to the variable in the DATA step. The length of a new variable is determined by the first reference in the DATA step. If the variable has been created by an assignment statement, later use of the LENGTH statement will not alter its size.

Now that you have added the LENGTH statement to your program, the values of Type are no longer truncated.

SAS Data Set Finance.Newloan

Account	Months	Payment	Code	TotalLoan	Type
101-1092	60	467.43	1	467.43	Fixed
101-1731	360	958.57	2	1426.00	Variable
101-1289	36	325.02	2	1751.02	Variable
101-3144	12	308.52	1	2059.54	Fixed
103-1135	24	403.47	1	2463.02	Fixed
103-1994	60	393.07	2	2856.10	Variable
103-2335	48	128.02	1	2984.11	Fixed
103-3864	360	735.75	1	3719.86	Fixed
103-3891	360	257.75	2	3977.61	Variable