Date:         Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:55:59 -0400
Reply-To:     Jack Clark <jclark@HILLTOP.UMBC.EDU>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jack Clark <jclark@HILLTOP.UMBC.EDU>
Subject:      Re: removing something extra on the end of variables
Comments: To: Tiffany <tiffany.vidal@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  A<7b0bba6b-4fa8-4e21-a674-abd373a32172@d42g2000prb.googlegroups.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Issue a length statement to set the variable to $6


Data new;
   Length hullnum $ 6;
   Set old;
Run;





Jack Clark
Senior Research Analyst
phone: 410-455-6256
fax: 410-455-6850
jclark@hilltop.umbc.edu

University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Sondheim Hall, 3rd Floor
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250




Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail may contain information that is legally privileged and that is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying of this e-mail, distribution, or action taken in reliance on the contents of this e-mail and/or documents attributed to this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately by phone and delete this entire e-mail. Thank you.-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Tiffany
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 3:46 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: removing something extra on the end of variables

Hi,

I have imported data from excel into SAS.  The field (hullnum) is set
to $10. but my value is 6 characters.  I am matching this field to
another table with the same field (hullnum).  I can see that the
values are the same, but they are not matching.  When I check the
length of the two values, one is 7 characters (the one I imported from
excel) and the other is 6 characters as it should be.  I have tried
trim(hullnum) and trim(left(hullnum)) trim(right(hullnum))
trim(left(right(hullnum))) but none work.

when I query for this hullnum in my imported data using:
   proc sql;
  select * from data
   where hullnum like 'ABCDEF%'

then it shows up.   I need that % on the end.  So something extra is
there, I just can't figure out what it is and how to get rid of it.
Any ideas?

thanks!