Date:         Sat, 23 May 2009 18:14:21 -0400
Reply-To:     Ian Whitlock <iw1sas@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Ian Whitlock <iw1sas@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Convert numeric to character,
              but don't know the length of the numeric variable.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

From:         Huijuan Meng <huijuan_meng@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Convert numeric to character,
              but don't know the length of the numeric variable.

Summary: Test data and two solutions
iw-value=1

   data mydata ;
      do x = 1 to 999 ; output ; end ;
   run ;

   proc sql noprint ;
      select put (nobs,best12.) into :c1n
        from dictionary.tables
        where libname = "WORK"
          and memname = "MYDATA"
      ;
   quit ;

   data _null_ ;
     file log;
     l1 = cats ( ">INAmes = (Q1(1)Q", "&c1n", ");" ) ;
     l2 = cats ( ">INUmber = (1(1)", "&c1n", ");" ) ;
     put l1 / l2 ;
   RUN;

   %let c1n = &c1n ; /* strip lead and trailing spaces */

   data _null_ ;
     file log;
     put
       @1 ">INAmes = (Q1(1)Q" "&c1n." ");"/
       @1 ">INUmber = (1(1)" "&c1n." ");"/
     ;
   run ;

Ian Whitlock

Date:         Sat, 23 May 2009 05:17:12 +0800
From:         Huijuan Meng <huijuan_meng@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Convert numeric to character,
              but don't know the length of the numeric variable.

Thank you so much for your help, sorry I did not explain my question
more specific.

Here is my situation:

I have a dataset which contain, say, 1100 variables,

I run some analysis with this data, based on the results, I need to
delete certain variables,

Then I need to find the number of the rest of the variables, it can
be >=1000, or < 1000,

Finally, I need to write a text file which referring to this number
a couple of times, and I don't want any space between this number
and other words in the text file.

Now I have a global macro variable:

%global c1n;

In my macro, I have

data t1;

dsid = open ("mydata");

c1n0 = attrn (dsid,'nobs');

c1n=put(c1n0,4.0);

run;

proc sql noprint;
select c1n into :c1n from t1;
quit;

data textfile;

file "C:\textfile.txt";

@1 ">INAmes = (Q1(1)Q" "&c1n." ");"/

@1 ">INUmber = (1(1)" "&c1n." ");"/

;

RUN;


So if c1n=999, I want my text file looks like:


>INAmes = (Q1(1)Q999);

>INUmber = (1(1)999);

Instead of

>INAmes = (Q1(1)Q 999);

>INUmber = (1(1) 999 );

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks a lot.