Date:         Tue, 31 Aug 2004 12:46:01 -0400
Reply-To:     Bob_Abelson@HGSI.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Bob Abelson <Bob_Abelson@HGSI.COM>
Subject:      Re: Creating dataset
Comments: To: An Am <aarumugam@STTHOMAS.EDU>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

An,

A couple of things stand out.

First, do you want N to be part of your input statement? Seems like you
need a condition in your second step:

if type="$" then TEMP=TRIM(LEFT(VNAME)) ||""||TRIM(LEFT(TYPE)) || "" ||
LEN;
else TEMP=TRIM(LEFT(VNAME)) ||""|| LEN;

The error message about no cards or infile is for your last data step,
which has neither a CARDS nor an INFILE statement. Where is the data
supposed to come from? You need an INFILE there, because you can't use
CARDS (or DATALINES) inside a macro.

I hope this helps.

Bob Abelson
HGSI
240 314 4400 x1374
bob_abelson@hgsi.com




An Am <aarumugam@STTHOMAS.EDU>
Sent by: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
08/31/2004 12:00 PM
Please respond to An Am


        To:     SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
        cc:
        Subject:        Creating dataset


I am trying to create a dataset using the data below.
%MACRO PROCESS;
    DATA VAR_LIST;
    INFILE  LOC DLM ='09'x;
    INPUT VNAME $ TYPE $ LEN $;
    ;

    DATA datset;
      SET VAR_LIST;
      TEMP=TRIM(LEFT(VNAME)) ||""||TRIM(LEFT(TYPE)) || "" || LEN;
    RUN;

    PROC SQL noprint;
        SELECT TEMP INTO :COLS SEPARATED BY ' ' FROM DATSET;
    QUIT;

    %let punc=;;
    DATA AE;
    INPUT &COLS &punc;
    ;
   %put &cols;
   proc contents data=ae;
%MEND PROCESS;

%PROCESS;

I have data like this.

VNAME  TYPE     LEN
PROTO $ 20
SITEID $ 10
PID N 8
SEX N 8
SIL     N       4

I am getting an output like this
Variable    Type    Len    Pos
-----------------------------------
N           Num       8      8
PID         Num       8      0
PROTO       Char      1     24
SEX         Num       8     16
SITEID      Char      1     25
SIL         Num       8     xx

I am wondering why length is going to default like 8 and 1 instead of
retaining 20 and 10 (both numeric and character).

Also an error message occurs saying
"135:ERROR: No CARDS or INFILE statement.
138:WARNING: The data set WORK.AE may be incomplete.  When this step was
stopped there were 0 observations and 5 variables.
Help please.

Thanks,
AN