Date:         Sun, 5 Sep 2004 12:38:41 -0400
Reply-To:     Peter Crawford <peter.crawford@BLUEYONDER.CO.UK>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Peter Crawford <peter.crawford@BLUEYONDER.CO.UK>
Subject:      Re: Help!!!
Comments: To: rex.lv@126.COM

On Sun, 5 Sep 2004 13:57:12 +0800, Rex.Lv <rex.lv@126.COM> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I want to read some data from some txt format files with tab as the
>delimiter and every variable value is quoted (even numeric variables),
>example in attachment.
>Anyone could give me a hand? Thx. a lot!
>
>
>
>Best Regards,
>Rex.
>
>
>begin 666 AST.TXT
>M(DUI:V4B"2(P-S4P,#$B"2)-(B -"B)*86-K(@DB,#<S,# Q(@DB32(-"B)+
>H:71E(@DB,#<W,# Q(@DB1B(-"B)1=6YS(@DB,#<Y,# R(@DB32(-"@``
>`
>end

Hi Rex
you're in luck
because you're using SAS
and the SAS system expects data like yours, normally,
so, try
data what_you_want;
  infile 'what_you_have.txt' dsd dlm='09'x lrecl= 10000;
  length char_var $40 num_var 8;
  informat date_var mmddyy8. amount comma19.2
           perc_var percent10. ; * etc;
  input char_var date_var perc_var num_var amount ;
run;

That DSD option on the infile statement, expects to tolerate quoted
values of any type. You would expect amount 12,345.67.89 to be quoted
if you use comma delimiters, so that needs to be supported, even
when your delimiter is tab = '09'x.
The lrecl= option is frequently important, because the default, 256
is often too short.
As long as you prepare beforehand, your input statement needs only
to list the vars you want to read, in order.

Good Luck
Peter Crawford
P.S.
sas-l doesn't allow attachments