Hi. You're taking a SUBSTRING of a NUMERIC variable. Another good question is why ZIP is length 12? I know that one - SAS uses BEST12. format for implicit numeric-2-character conversion. So, since SAS uses BEST12., 741368368 as character would be " 741368368" (3 blanks + 9 charaters = 12). The first 5 characters of the string are " 74" = 3 blanks + 74. Voila (or less)!

Mike Zdeb NYS Department of Health ESP Tower - Room 1811 Albany, NY 12237 518/473-2855

Jay Lutz <jay.lutz@pncbank.com> on 04/16/99 10:54:37 AM

Please respond to jay.lutz@pncbank.com

To: SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU cc: (bcc: Michael S. Zdeb/BWH/DFLH/CCH/OPH/DOH) Subject: substr question

I have used substr quite often without any problems. Does anyone have a clue why zip is returning a 2 digit var rather than a 5 digit var?

DATA TRANSDAT; INFILE FILE1; INPUT @170 ZIPIN PD5.0 @; ZIP=SUBSTR(ZIPIN,1,5); PROC CONTENTS; PROC PRINT;ENDSAS;

# Variable Type Len Pos ----------------------------------- 2 ZIP Char 12 8 1 ZIPIN Num 8 0 The SAS System

OBS ZIPIN ZIP

1 19021831 1 2 741368368 74 3 199042402 19 4 216130399 21 5 216130399 21 6 216130399 21 7 216130399 21

Thank you for your help!