I imagine the problem is solved by now, but I'm still a bit mystified by what you said about user-defined informats being only usable against "raw" data. Consider:

data notraw; do Userid = 'TOPCAT', 'TOPRAT', 'TOPDOG'; output; end; run;

Proc FORMAT; InValue $MLimit 'TOPCAT' = 1000 'TOPDOG' = 2000 'TOPRAT' = 3000 ; Run ;

data _null_; set notraw; QUOTA = Input(Upcase(Userid),$Mlimit.); put Userid= QUOTA=; run;

Result:

Userid=TOPCAT QUOTA=1000 Userid=TOPRAT QUOTA=3000 Userid=TOPDOG QUOTA=2000

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 17:27:36 -0500, Gerry <GPauline@FSMAIL.PACE.EDU> wrote:

>SAS-Pros: > >I apologize for the verbose question -- > >I have data that I need to use for a data lookup. The values are USERID, a >character variable (max of 30 chars in length) and QUOTA, a numeric value, a >minimum of 1000 (max is 9999). The values would look like: > >TOPCAT 1000 >TOPDOG 1000 >TOPRAT 1000 > >I want to use the key value, USERID to retrieve the quota value, preferably >as a numeric. I created a format table, using VALUE and treated the QUOTA >value as a character: > >Proc FORMAT Library=QUOTA ; > Value $MLimit 'TOPCAT' = '1000' > 'TOPDOG' = '1000' > 'TOPRAT' = '1000' ; >Run ; > >For this application, the format table will be created each time the report >program is run. I need to use QUOTA in the main program as a numeric (to see >if a user's assigned quota value is exceeded). > >This requires using: > >QUOTA = Input(Put(Upcase(Userid),$Mlimit.), 4.) ; > >This value would later be used in the program like this: > >If (MCount > QUOTA) Then ... > >The INVALUE option on PROC FORMAT allows for a format like MLimit to be >created as a numeric, but seems to only be used for "on-the-fly" conversion >of raw data (my data, both client and lookup, is coming from SQL Server >using LIBNAME access). > >Given the power and flexibility of PROC FORMAT, I'm sure I'm either over >looking the obvious or missing something rather blatant. Is there a better >way to do this in PROC FORMAT, or perhaps should I switch to a binary search >/ array lookup ? > >The lookup table is not large, approximately 4000 members. This is being run >using SAS v8.2 on a W2K server. > >Any and all suggestions will be gratefully appreciated ! > >Thank You. > >-Gerry > >Gerard T. Pauline >Mgr, Internet Applications & >University WebMaster >Computer Systems, DoIT >Pace University