At 09:06 AM 1/29/97 -0600, Larry Hoyle wrote: >Your perl program should probably check the length of the string. >You can also specify a maximum length in the HTML form. > >You might consider having the perl program generate the form if it is >invoked with no parameters and check values if it is called with >parameters. It can then send back the form for corrections if a field >has a nasty value. > > >The example perl program on SAS Institute's WWW site for CGI to SAS >does checking for problematic characters for macro variable values. >These are superset of the ones you will need to be concerned about. > > >The cgi component of the SAS/Intrnet product will also handle values >with characters like & ' and ". It would allow you to avoid the Perl >programming. > >Harish Chand wrote: >> >> I'm collecting data via the web and want to determine the best way to >> write the data out in a form which can be read into sas. I am >> particularly concerned about rogue data from open ended questions >> which could contain problematic characters for sas (as well as web >> site security). >> >> Here are my current plans, but I am open to better ideas. >> I plan on using perl to write the data to a file which I'll then read >> into sas. The file will have a bunch of records such as: >> var1 = 'foo1'; >> var2 = 'foo2'; >> ... >> output datasetn; >> >> As some of the values will be responses to open ended questions (email >> addresses, comments, etc.), I want to convert any characters which >> might screw up sas. Any tips? >> >> Here are my thoughts about problematic characters. >> >> 1. replace ' by '' (so embedded single quotes will be ok) >> 2. replace & by (amp) or something similar (although this shouldn't be >> a problem since I'm not using double quotes). >> >> I am not sure what to do (if anything) about embedded double quotes ("). >> >> Are there any other characters I should worry about? >> >> Is there a better way to do things? The advantage of the above method >> is that I can write out to a single file rather than writing out to >> multiple raw data files (size of input file is not too big a concern), >> but I am open to better ideas. >> >> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. >> >> Thanks, >> Harish Chand > >-- > How about using client-side JavaScript? This will eliminate the need to 'hit' the server for data validation. Try performing all data validation, conversions using, and displaying error messages via JavaScript and THEN hit the server for PERL and SAS processes.

best...

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