Date:         Thu, 2 Jun 2011 10:14:22 -0400
Reply-To:     Nat Wooding <nathani@VERIZON.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Nat Wooding <nathani@VERIZON.NET>
Subject:      Re: SAS informat for this COBOL picture "9(7)V999" with length of
              10?
In-Reply-To:  <201106011254.p51AnAHh011940@willow.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Jerry

I have not seen any replies to this note and, having a spare moment, I went
looking for information on COBOL layouts. As far as I can tell, you can
either have a number with an explicit decimal or an implied decimal. In
either case, the 999 indicates three decimal digits. If SAS encounters a
decimal in a numeric field, it then recognizes it even though you may have
specified more decimal digits. Take a look at the following code and I think
it will help. And, as far as I can tell, 10.3 will work properly for the two
cases that you gave.

Nat Wooding

Data Jerry;
input character $10. @1 number 10.3;
put  character= number=;
cards;
12345
12.345
1234.5
run;

-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jerry
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 8:55 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SAS informat for this COBOL picture "9(7)V999" with length of
10?

Great point! As you expected, the field only appear as 1234567890, there is
NO decimal.

One further question: is 10.3 informat correct for either "picture (9)7V999"
or "pic (9)7V.999"? Or it's correct for only "picture (9)7V999"?

Thank you!

On Tue, 31 May 2011 17:49:42 -0700, Mark Miller <mdhmiller@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

>I would expect the data in the text file to
>appear as  1234567890
>i.e. the picture (9)7V999 has only an implicit decimal point.
>
>An explicit decimal point must be included in the picture
>as in  pic (9)7V.999
>
>Nonetheless, the input format should be   10.3
>
>On 5/31/2011 4:02 PM, Nat Wooding wrote:
>> I just reread this post. When you look at the txt file, do you see the
>> number that you would expect as in
>>
>> 123456.890
>>
>> Meaning 9 digits and a decimal? If so, COBOL has long since stopped being
>> part of its life and a format of 10.3 should read it.
>>
>> Nat Wooding
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Jerry
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 4:11 PM
>> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: SAS informat for this COBOL picture "9(7)V999" with length of
10?
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am trying to read into SAS (on Windows) a column with COBOL picture of
>> "9(7)V999" and a length of 10 (from a .txt file), I guess the
corresponding
>> SAS informat should be 10.3
>>
>> But I really don't know much about COBOL picture, so could any expert
>> confirm whether or not the correct corresponding SAS informat should be
10.3
>> for this COBOL picture? If not, what is it then?
>>
>> Thanks!