If it works don't fix it! The "put (_all_) (format);" allows formatting between all of the output fields. It's documented somewhere in the online doc, but don't ask me where. It's used on SAS-L regularly. ;-)

I like "put (_all_) (=/);" which lists the variables with names vertically.

Paul Choate DDS Data Extraction (916) 654-2160

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rune Runnestoe Sent: Monday, August 09, 2004 12:09 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: merging datasets to a file

Gary Ross <gary_ross@mgic.com> wrote in message news:<41178338.CCD0C9AD@mgic.com>...

> You could try: > > put _numeric_ _character_ ; > > Be advised, though, you lose formatting for the character variables > unless they are all the same length (not likely), but: > > put _numeric_ 8. _character_ $10. ; > > should work.

It doesn't seem to work, but thanks anyway. put _numeric_ provokes an error message in the log. put _character_ or put _character_ $10 doesn't write any data to the file.

But - the problem is solved. Paul Choate advised me to try put (_all_)(:) or put (_all_) ('09'x):

So here is the code: %let lib = dev; data &lib..all; set &lib..class2 &lib..class3; file 'd:\concatenated.dat'; put (_all_) (:); run;

and that works fine. I prefer (:) to ('09'x) because it looks better. I don't know what (:) means or why it works, but that doesn't bother me so much as long as it works :-).

Regards Rune