Dennis Diskin (and many others) have already explained:

> The default format for all numeric variables in SAS is BEST8. > When you tell SQL to put something INTO a macro variable, it > must convert > it to a character string and so if you don't say otherwise, uses the > default format. > Usually this is fine but in your case you need to supply a format eg. > best12. would work.

Given that, I think I'd be happier to see SAS put a NOTE: to the log when it does the automatic numeric to character conversion for INTO, as done with automatic conversions in a data step. If there had been such a NOTE: (and actually I'd prefer a WARNING:), it might have pointed Francesco towards a solution. But I don't use SQL much, so don't know if this is a silly idea. Any thoughts?

--Quentin