Date:         Wed, 2 Nov 2005 12:13:25 -0500
Reply-To:     "Michael S. Zdeb" <msz03@HEALTH.STATE.NY.US>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Michael S. Zdeb" <msz03@HEALTH.STATE.NY.US>
Subject:      Re: Modified List Input
Comments: To: Cameron Hooper <chooper@UMICH.EDU>
In-Reply-To:  <344dcbc1910e9cfd07c282fd55be7594@umich.edu>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Hi....that won't fail since after you read VAR1, the 'pointer' is in the
space just after the value 'xxx' or 'yyy'.  You only have 1 space between
the value of VAR1 and the value of DATE.  So, you luck out and the data
step works --- read 10 columns.  Put at least TWO spaces between the value
of VAR1 and DATE and it won't work --- but modified LIST input will work.

Mike Zdeb
U@Albany School of Public Health
1 University Drive
Rensselaer, NY   12144-3456
(P)518-402-6479
(F)630-604-1475



             Cameron Hooper
             <chooper@UMICH.ED
             U>                                                         To
             Sent by: "SAS(r)          SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
             Discussion"                                                cc
             <SAS-L@LISTSERV.U
             GA.EDU>                                               Subject
                                       Modified List Input

             11/02/2005 11:49
             AM


             Please respond to
              Cameron Hooper
             <chooper@UMICH.ED
                    U>






It is my understanding that the colon modifier is necessary to enable
non-standard data to be read using list input. For example, consider
the following raw data file:

---test.dat---
xxx 12/31/2000
               yyy 01/10/2001
--------------

I expected the following data step to generate an error as the colon is
omitted from the input line. However, it works just fine.

data test;
     infile 'test.dat';
     length var1 $8.;
     input var1 date mmddyy10.;
     format date mmddyy10.;
run;

Shouldn't this fail? I thought the step should be written like this:

data test;
                   infile '/test.dat';
     length var1 $8.;
     input var1 date :mmddyy.;
     format date mmddyy10.;
run;

Thanks

 Cameron