Date:         Thu, 30 Sep 2004 11:53:03 +0200
Reply-To:     Robert Bardos <bardos2@ANSYS.CH>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Robert Bardos <bardos2@ANSYS.CH>
Subject:      Re: Combining data with different length of fields
In-Reply-To:  <3049296b.0409291436.23500cb4@posting.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Tony,

as given I could not reproduce your problem, ie. using the length statement
ahead of set should do. As soon as I inserted a "format plan $6. mbrid $5."
statement in the step creating data1 the problem was there. So it is a
display/format problem rather than a length problem that you have to solve.

Hope this helps

Robert Bardos
Ansys AG, Switzerland

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]Im Auftrag von
Tony Wang
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 30. September 2004 00:37
An: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Betreff: Combining data with different length of fields


Hi All,

I have several datasets with variables like "plan","mbrid" etc. They
have different length ($6-$25).
           plan         mbrid
data1    'bcbswa'      'xxxxx'
data2    'wellpoint'   'xxxxxxxxxx'

When I combine them like this:

data allplan;
length plan $ 50 mbrid $50;
set data1 data2;
run;

Output:

plan    mbrid
bcbswa   xxxxx
wellpo   xxxxx

It cut off something in the 2nd dataset. I tried to define the length
of data1
and data2 seperately but it didn't work either. At last I changed the
sequence of data sets like "set data2 data1;" It worked.

Is there an alternative way to avoid losing information when combining
datasets?
I have tens of datasets and hundreds of fields. I am not supposed to
count the maximum length of each field.

Thanks for your help,

Tony