Date:         Thu, 15 Apr 2004 13:35:17 -0600
Reply-To:     Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Subject:      What does SAS think it's finding in this error message?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I accidentally typed a period instead of a comma, and got this message:

=====
13            if substr(_infile_, 1, 1) in ('#'. '!') then
ERROR: All variables in array list must be the same type, i.e., all
numeric or character.
=====

After I changed the period to a comma, the program ran correctly.

How was SAS intrepreting the erroneous code that caused it to issue
that particular message?

Just to see what would happen, I replaced the comma with a slash, andot
a message that I'm not surprised by:

=====
13            if substr(_infile_, 1, 1) in ('#'/ '!') then
                                               _
                                               22
                                                 ___
                                                 200
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a quoted
string, a numeric constant, a datetime constant, a missing value,
iterator, (, ), ','.
ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.
=====

Why did I not get the same message above?




--
JackHamilton@FirstHealth.com
Manager, Technical Development
Metrics Department, First Health
West Sacramento, California USA