SAS Financial Functions

SAS - Imports and Informats

What is it?

Informats are used to read external data (e.g. Text Files, CSV, Sequential Files); Most common informats below
Character Informats
Numeric Informats
Date/Time Informats

Informat Example:

Import and Informat Example:

filename my_data_file 'c:\desktop\myfile.dat'

Data work.my_data_file;

infile my_data_file;
    input @1   id                 $6.
             @5   create_date   mmddyy10.0
             @9   amount         8.2
run;

proc
  print data=my_data_file;
run;

What's happening in the script above?

The script is importing a data file located on the desktop
The imported data will be stored as a temporary dataset within work.my_data_fiel
The improt process will only bring in 3 columns of the table column 1, column 5 and column 9 denoted with an @ sign.
The columns will be labeled; ID, create_date, amount
The SAS Interpreter will need instructions on how to intepret each column using informats $6., mmddyyyy10.0, and 8.2

Informat Examples:

Input	Informat	Output	Description
08/11/2003	mmddyyyy10.0	15928	The number of days since YEARCUTOFF option (yearcutoff=1920)
$13,203	Comma10.2	13203.00	Drops dollar sign and commas
12345	$CHAR6.	12345	The value will store leading blanks if they exist
12345	$6.	12345	Numeric value 6 characters long, no decimal places
1327034.13	Dollar10.2	$1,327,034.13	Adds dollar sign and commas
0000012345	z10.	0000012345	Keeps leading zeros

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