also another thing:

formatted input without any position parameter might be not always a good idea. If you have data like

72 95 72 96

the input statement like

input a 2. b 2. ;

does not what you want. I'd prefer

input a : 8. b : 8.;

for that.

Gerhard

On Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:02:19 -0600, Data _null_; <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

>On 11/9/09, Al <ali6058@gmail.com> wrote: >> I missed the period after weight 2 .. so i have a output of >> height weight >> 72 2 >> >> in the dataset .. can anybody help me understand why SAS has read >> value of 2 in the weight variable > > >The simple answer of course is "because you told it too." > >The missing period on the 2 that you intended to be an INFORMAT which >should have read two columns starting in column 4 was interpreted, >rightly so, as column input. Column input ranges are usually >specified as "beginning-ending" column, but you can omit the end when >the field is 1 column wide.