Date:         Sat, 5 Jul 2008 12:02:04 -0400
Reply-To:     Alison El Ayadi <alisontetler@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Alison El Ayadi <alisontetler@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT

Thank you so much.

This still leaves me with a character variable though.  Isn't there a way
to designate a numeric variable and import the values into it from the
character variable and have them read as numeric??


On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 23:40:14 -0400, Arthur Tabachneck <art297@NETSCAPE.NET>
wrote:

>Alison,
>
>In SAS, once a variable is declared as character, it must remain
character.
>
>Thus, to do what you want, you have to create a new variable.
>
>You could do that with your set of if statements, but could also do it
>with a format.
>
>Try something like the following:
>
>data apa;
>  input In_what_state_do_you_work____che $20.;
>  cards;
>Connecticut
>Maine
>New Hampshire
>Rhode Island
>Vermont
>;
>
>proc format;
>  value $ states
>  "Connecticut"=1
>  "Maine"=2
>  "New Hampshire"=3
>  "Rhode Island"=4
>  "Vermont"=5
>  else=6;
>run;
>
>data apa;
>  set apa;
>  options nofmterr;
>  In_what_state_do_you_work____num =
>    put (In_what_state_do_you_work____che,$states.);
>run;
>
>HTH,
>Art
>----------
>On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 22:18:16 -0400, Alison El Ayadi
><alisontetler@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>
>>I am bringing in some survey data from survey monkey, so it is all in
text
>>format.  To make it easier to work with I'm trying to switch everything
to
>>numeric.  I have recoded all of my variables in the same manner as the
>>example below, but each time I try to run it I get an error that says:
>>NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT at line 11070 column 7.
>>
>>I have gone through the frequencies of my old variables and they have all
>>been changed, although the freq tables look a little funny with the
>>variable values a little lower than the descriptive statistics on the
page
>>(I think this is due to the fact that they are numbers but in a character
>>format).
>>
>>I have seen the suggestions that others have posted regarding this error,
>>that there is still something character that is left in the variable, but
>>can't find anything.  Does anyone have any suggestions??
>>
>>Thanks so much,
>>Alison
>>
>>**here is a sample of the way I am recoding to numeric and then
formatting
>>into a numeric variable:
>>
>>data apa; set surveys.apa; options nofmterr;
>>If In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 'Connecticut' then
>>In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 1;
>>else if In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 'Maine' then
>>In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 2;
>>else if In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 'Massachusetts' then
>>In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 3;
>>else if In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 'New Hampshire' then
>>In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 4;
>>else if In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 'Rhode Island' then
>>In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 5;
>>else if In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 'Vermont' then
>>In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 6;
>>else In_what_state_do_you_work____che = 0;
>>State = input(In_what_state_do_you_work____che,best4.);