Date:         Thu, 11 Mar 2004 13:35:15 -0500
Reply-To:     "Fehd, Ronald J. (PHPPO)" <rjf2@CDC.GOV>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Fehd, Ronald J. (PHPPO)" <rjf2@CDC.GOV>
Subject:      Re: Numeric Questions?
Comments: cc: "Ross, Michael D" <michael.ross@ASTRAZENECA.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> From: Ross, Michael D [mailto:michael.ross@ASTRAZENECA.COM]
>  What is the maximum length a Numeric 8. can hold? I noticed
> with very large numbers they use scientific notation - is
> there any way to see actual value.

Char = put(N,hex16.);

> Maybe an algoritim that
> reads the Numeric into a very large Character field.

Char = put(N,binary64.);

>  Also, is there any harm in allocating Numeric 8. when you
> know your only going to have 2 digits in that variable?

depending on your OpSys you may save storage of small integers
in either two or three bytes
length SmallInteger 2;
length SmallInteger 3;

if this is a number you're stuck
otherwise, if it is a category, use
length SmallInteger $ 1;
and consider extendedHex to store numbers up to 36
value $ExtendedHex
'0'= 0 '1'=1 '2'=2 ... '9'=9
'A'=10 ... 'F'=15'
'G'=16 ... 'Z'=36
other = 'off the scale';

DATA _Null_;
Do   Exp = 30 to 256;
     MaxInt = 2**Exp-1;
     put Exp= MaxInt=comma32. MaxInt= hex16. / MaxInt= binary64. ;
     end;
stop;run;

you'll see the notation give up commas
and then go to scientific notation
at varying exponents.

Ron Fehd  the macro maven  CDC Atlanta GA USA RJF2@cdc.gov

My computer must be broken:
whenever I ask a wrong question,
         I get a wrong answer.
-- Pot-Shots by Ashleigh Brilliant

My computer is not over-stressed yet:
let me add one to the exponent
and see if I get overflow.
-- RJF2