Reading Unaligned Data with More Flexibility

Understanding How to Make List Input More Flexible

While list input is the simplest to code, remember that it places restrictions on your data. By using format modifiers, you can take advantage of the simplicity of list input without the inconvenience of the usual restrictions. For example, you can use modified list input to do the following:
  • Create character variables that are longer than the default length of eight bytes.
  • Read numeric data with special characters like commas, hyphens, and currency symbols.
  • Read character data that contains embedded blanks.
  • Read data values that can be stored as SAS date variables.

Creating Longer Variables and Reading Numeric Data That Contains ...

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