Thanks to Kurt, Carol, Chang and L for their help. I used the method below as it required fewer keystrokes. For me fewer keystrokes = fewer errors. :)

I'm assuming then that using the colon here is the equivalent of predefining the variable with a length.

David W Neylon, Sr

Consultant/Data Security Analyst Corporate Information Security - CIS Mainframe Security Technical Services (480) 774-3155 David.W.Neylon@WellsFargo.com Wells Fargo Confidential This message may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the addressee or authorized to receive this for the addressee, you must not use, copy, disclose, or take any action based on this message or any information herein. If you have received this message in error, please advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete this message. Thank you for your cooperation.

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of L. Bertolini Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004 7:48 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Delimiter question

Try coding a colon between the variable name and the informat:

INPUT au nada Dept_Name : $char30. Approver_Name : $char30.;

David W Neylon wrote:

>Code: >DATA auinfo (KEEP=au Dept_Name Approver_Name); > INFILE auinfo delimiter='|'; > INPUT au nada Dept_Name $char30. Approver_Name $char30.; proc sort >data=auinfo;by au; proc print noobs data=auinfo; >