Well, you have an issue here that SAS considers a missing character field to be a single blank space [or any number thereof]. So "" doesn't really exist, it evaluates to " ".

Sounds like Randy has a good solution with the LENGTH attribute (I was poking around with $HEX and some other raw-er formats, but wasn't having any luck), so go with that if it works for your purposes.

-Joe

On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 10:03 AM, John Smith <js8765@googlemail.com> wrote:

> Hi, > > Thanks to you both for the help. I now realise that I should have specified > my problem a bit more... > > I'd like to be able to distinguish between a line with no characters and a > line with just one space in it. > > Here's what I tried but it gives the same result for both if statments... > > data _null_; > infile temp; > input; > if put(_infile_,$char.) = "" then put 'Empty line'; > if put(_infile_,$char.) = " " then put 'Line with a single space'; > run; > > Any further help would be great. > > Thanks. > > On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 4:20 PM, Randy Herbison <RandyHerbison@westat.com > >wrote: > > > They don't get removed from the _infile_ variable. When you PUT the > > _infile_ variable, use a $CHAR format to see leading spaces: > > > > 26 filename test temp; > > 27 > > 28 data _null_; > > 29 file test; > > 30 put @8 'ABC123'; > > 31 run; > > > > NOTE: The file TEST is: > > Filename=C:\DOCUME~1\HERBIS~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\SAS Temporary > > Files\_TD2932\#LN00012, > > RECFM=V,LRECL=256,File Size (bytes)=0, > > Last Modified=13Jul2011:10:17:34, > > Create Time=13Jul2011:10:17:34 > > > > NOTE: 1 record was written to the file TEST. > > The minimum record length was 13. > > The maximum record length was 13. > > NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): > > real time 0.03 seconds > > cpu time 0.01 seconds > > > > > > 32 > > 33 data _null_; > > 34 infile test _infile_=myInfile; > > 35 input; > > 36 put _infile_; > > 37 put myInfile $char13.; > > 38 run; > > > > NOTE: The infile TEST is: > > Filename=C:\DOCUME~1\HERBIS~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\SAS Temporary > > Files\_TD2932\#LN00012, > > RECFM=V,LRECL=256,File Size (bytes)=15, > > Last Modified=13Jul2011:10:17:34, > > Create Time=13Jul2011:10:17:34 > > > > ABC123 > > ABC123 > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of > John > > Smith > > Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 10:07 AM > > To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU > > Subject: Read in an entire line of raw data including the leading spaces > > > > Hi, > > > > When I read in a line of raw data using the input statement, the leading > > spaces are stripped from the _infile_ variable. > > > > Is there any way of reading in an entire line of raw data and conserve > the > > leading spaces? > > > > Thanks for any help, > > > > js > > >