Date:         Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:42:04 -0500
Reply-To:     Arthur Tabachneck <art297@ROGERS.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Arthur Tabachneck <art297@ROGERS.COM>
Subject:      Re: Counting digits
Comments: To: Lorne Klassen <lk1@ROGERS.COM>

Lorne,

I don't think the Nat/Howard solution will work with negative numbers unless
you add the abs function as well.

Art
-------
On Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:30:36 -0500, Lorne Klassen <lk1@ROGERS.COM> wrote:

>I like this (from Nat and modified by Howard S):
>
>numbers = int( log10( y ) ) + 1;
>
>thanks
>
>
>On Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:20:23 -0500, Nat Wooding <nathani@VERIZON.NET>
wrote:
>
>>Lorne
>>
>>The INT would be a definite improvement to my code.
>>
>>Nat
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Lorne
>>Klassen
>>Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 11:51 PM
>>To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: Re: Counting digits
>>
>>Thanks Tom and Nat. Be careful with this though:
>>
>>length(left(put(abs(y),20.)))
>>
>>which won't work in rare cases. E.g., if y=99999.99 then PUT will round
and
>>return 100000 and the result will be 6 instead of the correct value, 5.
>>
>>That's why I apply the INT function first.
>>
>>
>>On Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:55:23 -0500, Tom Abernathy
<tom.abernathy@GMAIL.COM>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>To deal with the negative numbers add an ABS() function call.
>>>
>>>Also could just use
>>>
>>>  length(left(put(abs(y),20.)))
>>>
>>>Which does not seem to get confused by 10,000,000.
>>>
>>>On Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:07:46 -0500, Nat Wooding <nathani@VERIZON.NET>
>>wrote:
>>>
>>>>Lorne
>>>>
>>>>The following seems to work ok.
>>>>
>>>>Nat Wooding
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>data  num;
>>>>input y ;
>>>>numbers = ceil(  log10( y + .1 ) );
>>>>format y comma15.;
>>>>* the addition of the .1 was needed to get the 10000000 to work;
>>>>cards;
>>>>7
>>>>76
>>>>768
>>>>6000
>>>>6500
>>>>6900
>>>>7687
>>>>76877.234
>>>>800000
>>>>899999
>>>>9000000
>>>>10000000
>>>>100000000
>>>>run;
>>>>
>>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>>From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Lorne
>>>>Klassen
>>>>Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 6:47 PM
>>>>To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>>Subject: Counting digits
>>>>
>>>>Simple question: I want to get the number of digits to the left of the
>>>>decimal place from a value in a numeric variable (excluding negative
sign
>>>>if there is one).
>>>>
>>>>I can live with the following which works but I'm wondering if it can be
>>>>even simpler than this? I thought there might be a numeric function to
do
>>>>it directly but couldn't find one.
>>>>
>>>>y = 76877.234;
>>>>result = countc(put(int(y),32.),,"d");
>>>> or
>>>>result = length(compress(put(int(y),32.)," -"));