Date:         Thu, 1 Oct 2009 12:09:27 -0700
Reply-To:     "Terjeson, Mark" <Mterjeson@RUSSELL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Terjeson, Mark" <Mterjeson@RUSSELL.COM>
Subject:      Re: how to convert a num. item to char in proc sql?
Comments: To: demin <qdmiris@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  A<e14a9ae4-6190-4285-bc52-37ed36f6071f@o36g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi Demin,

You are very close.

the   PUT function converts numeric to character
the INPUT function converts character to numeric

input(oldvalue,$8.) as newvalue

is correct if you are converting numeric to character.

use

put(oldvalue,8.) as newvalue

to convert numeric to character.

Now for a gotcha:  if you use

put(value,$8.) as value

you will still end up with a numeric variable
even if the PUT converts it to character. The
problem of using the SAME variable name is that
once the variable type has been established by
the compiler looking through all of the code
prior to execution, what will happen is that
the PUT() function will indeed convert to string
but then the assignment(=) task is next and it
will see that the new temporary intermediate
string value will get converted (again) to the
preexisting destination variable type. And in
your case it ends up as numeric all over again.
So check and use/re-use variable names accordingly.



Hope this is helpful.


Mark Terjeson
Investment Business Intelligence
Investment Management & Research
Russell Investments
253-439-2367


Russell
Global Leaders in Multi-Manager Investing







-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
demin
Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 11:38 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: how to convert a num. item to char in proc sql?

how to convert a num. item to char in proc sql?

I tried put, input, but doesn't work:
proc sql;
  create view myVW as select item,input(value,$8.) as value from
mytable
  where statistic='aaa';
quit;

thanks.