SAS Certification Prep Guide: Base Programming for SAS 9, Third Edition

Specifying Lengths for Variables

Overview

Previously, you added IF-THEN and ELSE statements to a DATA step in order to create the variable TestLength. Values for TestLength were assigned conditionally, based on the value for TotalTime.

data clinic.stress; 
   infile tests; 
   input ID $ 1-4 Name $ 6-25 RestHR 27-29 MaxHR 31-33
         RecHR 35-37 TimeMin 39-40 TimeSec 42-43
         Tolerance $ 45; 
   TotalTime=(timemin*60)+timesec; 
   retain SumSec 5400; 
   sumsec+totaltime; 
   if totaltime>800 then TestLength='Long'; 
   else if 750<=totaltime<=800 then TestLength='Normal'; 
   else if totaltime<750 then TestLength='Short'; 
run;

But look what happens when you submit this program.

During compilation, when creating a new character variable in an assignment statement, SAS allocates ...