Date:         Wed, 28 Aug 1996 12:19:24 -0700
Reply-To:     Ronald Max Atwood Jr <matwood@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Ronald Max Atwood Jr <matwood@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject:      Input problem

Hi Y'all:
 
I have run into an interesting input problem and thought I would check
to see if any one out here is SAS-l land has run into this before.
 
I have a "text" file that is supposed to be column delimited.  I am not
sure of the actual source of the file.  I believe it was produced by an
SQL query in ORACLE but I could not swear to that.
 
As with all nice data sets there are supposed to be a fixed number of
fields on any given line.  However, in this case one field does not
always have a value.  On those lines were there is no value, there
appears to be some sort of tab causing the pointer (in my text editor)
to jump to the beginning of the next field.  However, this "tab" effect
does not carry over in SAS in the input statement.  When I try to read
specific data from specific colunms (using the @ symbol) I get
erroneous results on those lines with the tab like effect.  Something
like the following:
 
Text file (as it appears in my text editor):
 
1111 2222 3333 4444 5555
1111 2222 3333      5555
 
Data dns;
..
input @1 field1 $4.
      @6 field2 $4.
      @11 field3 $4.
      @16 field4 $4.
      @21 field5 $4.;
..
run;
 
In the case of line 1, the input is working fine.  In the case of line
2, positions 16-19 are not occupied by blanks (i.e. simply missing
data) there is some sort of tab effect so that position 16 is infact
the beginning of field5.
 
The results of the data step seem to vary depending of the varyous
approachs I take at the input process.  The straight forward approach
implied above gives the anticipated results for line 1.  On line 2 I
get field5 data in field4 and missing data in field5.
 
The above example is a simplification of the real data set and input
process.  My questions to the SAS-L are: what kind of "text" file have
I run into?  What is it I am seeing in field4?  Does anyone out there
have any ideas how to read this file correctly?
 
I am working in SAS611 on a Sun1000 workstation under SunOS2.3.
 
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
 
Max Atwood (matwood@ix.netcom.com)