Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 16:56:29 -0500
Reply-To: Ian Whitlock <WHITLOI1@WESTAT.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Ian Whitlock <WHITLOI1@WESTAT.COM>
Subject: Re: SAS name characteristics
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Kevin,
It is stored in the catalog, since you don't need to know about it, it isn't
shown to you on need to know basis. SAS is a user friendly system so the
convert the @ to an I so you won't be confused. Now you aren't confused,
are you?
IanWhitlock@westat.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Delaney, Kevin P. [mailto:khd8@CDC.GOV]
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 3:32 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: FW: SAS name characteristics
Thought I would muddy the waters a little more here, in V9 of SAS, we have
the dictionary table dictionary.formats (and SASHELP.VFORMAT):
For those of you with V9, try this...
***********v9*****************;
proc format;
value test 1="YES" 0="NO";
invalue test "YES"=1 "No"=0;
value $test "Y"="Yes" "N"="No";
invalue $test "Yes"="Y" "No"="N";
run;
proc sql;
*describe table dictionary.formats;
select fmtname, fmttype, source from dictionary.formats where
libname="WORK"; quit;
So,
1) where does SAS Store the '@'
2) I've looked (albeit quickly) through the V9 documentation, any idea what
Source is?
Valid values appear to be B, C, and U ???
Kevin Delaney
KDelaney@cdc.gov
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Heaton [mailto:EdHeaton@WESTAT.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 2:54 PM
Subject: Re: SAS name characteristics
Ian,
Sorry for being unclear. From the SAS online docs...
When SAS prints messages referring to a user-written informat, the name is
prefixed by an at sign (@). When the informat is stored, the at sign is
prefixed to the name you specify for the informat, which is why you are
limited to only seven characters in the name. You need to use the at sign
only when you are using the name in an EXCLUDE or SELECT statement; do not
prefix the name with an at sign when you are associating the informat with a
variable.
Ed
Edward Heaton, Senior Systems Analyst,
Westat (An Employee-Owned Research Corporation),
1600 Research Boulevard, Room RW-3541, Rockville, MD 20850-3195
Voice: (301) 610-4818 Fax: (301) 294-3992
mailto:EdHeaton@westat.com http://www.westat.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Whitlock
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 2:50 PM
To: Ed Heaton; SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: RE: SAS name characteristics
Ed,
In what sense is that true?
454 data w ;
NOTE: SCL source line.
455 input x @f3. ;
---
22
ERROR 22-322: Expecting a name.
456 put x= ;
457 cards ;
Or perhaps more entertaining.
489 proc format ;
NOTE: SCL source line.
490 invalue @mynumtolong "1" = 100 ;
-
22
-----------
202
NOTE: The informat name '@MYNUMTOLONG' exceeds 8 characters. Only the first
8 characters will be
used.
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a name, $.
ERROR 202-322: The option or parameter is not recognized and will be
ignored.
Reminds me of the time Marianne used a spelling checker and got the message
"No alternative to your word (misspelled alternative)."
IanWhitlock@westat.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Heaton
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 2:27 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SAS name characteristics
Jack,
Remember that informats all have a leading @, so your informat name is nine
characters.
Ed
Edward Heaton, Senior Systems Analyst,
Westat (An Employee-Owned Research Corporation),
1600 Research Boulevard, Room RW-3541, Rockville, MD 20850-3195
Voice: (301) 610-4818 Fax: (301) 294-3992
mailto:EdHeaton@westat.com http://www.westat.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Hamilton [mailto:JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM]
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 9:02 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SAS name characteristics
What SAS says about this does not appear to be completely true. Here's a
job log from 8.2:
-----
22 proc format;
23 invalue longname
NOTE: The informat name '@LONGNAME' exceeds 8 characters. Only the first 8
characters will be used.
24 'a' = 1
25 'b' = 2;
NOTE: Informat LONGNAM has been output.
26 run;
NOTE: PROCEDURE FORMAT used:
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds
27
28 data _null_;
29 test1 = input('a', longname.);
30 test2 = input('b', longnamx.);
31 put (_all_) (=);
32 run;
test1=1 test2=2
NOTE: DATA statement used:
real time 0.03 seconds
cpu time 0.03 seconds
-----
So:
1) An 8 character name is allowed for an informat.
2) A misleading message is issued saying that only the first 8 characters
will be used (misleading because it doesn't tell you that it inserted an @
at the beginning).
3) The first 7 characters of the name you entered are used when SAS searches
for the informat name.
--
JackHamilton@FirstHealth.com
Manager, Technical Development
METRICS Department, First Health
West Sacramento, California USA
>>> "Chakravarthy, Venky" <Venky.Chakravarthy@PFIZER.COM> 12/13/2002
4:54 AM >>>
Jim,
First, note that user INFORMATS are still subject to the 7 character
limitation because an @ sign is prefixed by SAS prior to storage.
As far as documentation goes, there is a section on names:
SAS OnlineDoc
Base SAS Software
SAS Language Reference: Dictionary
Appendices
Rules for Words and Names
Names in the SAS Language
Kind Regards,
__________________________
Venky Chakravarthy
E-mail: swovcc@hotmail.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Groeneveld [mailto:J.Groeneveld@ITGROUPS.COM]
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 5:57 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: SAS name characteristics
Hi friends,
I always thought in (from) version 8.x only variable names might be 32
characters long, other SAS names only 8. So I stuck to that, until I
recently accidentally noticed valid dataset names with names longer than 8
characters. So, in order to debug my macro SAS_name I would like to know the
maximum length of names in SAS 8.x+ for:
* variables (32)
* datasets (???)
* libraries (8?)
* formats (8)
* variable labels (256)
* .........
And where are these characteristics documented properly (in any case not in
the online help of 8.2)?
Regards - Jim.
--
Y. (Jim) Groeneveld, MSc IMRO TRAMARKO tel. +31 412 407 070
senior statist./data man. P.O. Box 1 fax. +31 412 407 080
J.Groeneveld@ITGroups.com 5350 AA BERGHEM, NL www.imrotramarko.com
I think I master my computer, sometimes I seem to be its slave.
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