Date:         Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:12:18 -0500
Reply-To:     bbser 2009 <bbser2009@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         bbser 2009 <bbser2009@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: How SAS compresses this obervation
Comments: To: Arthur Tabachneck <art297@ROGERS.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <201111240104.pANJJ42j011106@waikiki.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Art

Thank you very much for pointing out how to look into the file. Learned new.


Regards, Max
(Maaxx)


-----Original Message-----
From: Arthur Tabachneck [mailto:art297@ROGERS.COM]
Sent: November-23-11 8:05 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU; Bbser 2009
Subject: Re: How SAS compresses this obervation

Max,

I must ask!  Why don't you just create the file, download a free hex viewer
(like hexmad) and simply look at the file?

I don't know if it makes a difference how one compresses the file.  I used:

libname test "c:\art";
data test.have (compress=char);
   informat lastname firstname $10.;
   length lastname firstname $10;
   input lastname firstname;
   datalines;
Tom Smith
;

I'll provide an answer this time but, really, why ask when a simple test can
provide the answer directly?

On my computer it ended up doubling the size of the file and Tom Smith got
translated, in hex, to: 82 54 6F 6D E5 84 53 6D 69 74 68 E3 FE FB FF FF
------
On Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:20:10 -0500, bbser 2009 <bbser2009@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

>Greetings!
>
>Assuming the lengths of both Lastname and Firstname are 10 bytes.
>If Lastname='Smith' and Firstname='Tom', then do you think, in the
>compressed file generated by using compressed=CHAR, the observation looks
>something like this?
>
>5 S m i t h 5 3 T o m 7
>
>Thank you.
>
>Regards, Max
>(Maaxx)