PDw.d Informat: UNIX

Reads data that is stored in packed decimal format.
Category: Numeric
Default: 1
Ranges: 1 to 16, 0 to 31
UNIX specifics: data representation
See: PDw.d Informat in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference

Details

The PDw.d informat reads packed decimal data. Although it is usually impossible to type packed decimal data directly from a console, many programs write packed decimal data.
Each byte contains two digits in packed decimal data. The value's sign is the first byte. Because the entire first byte is used for the sign, you should specify at least a width of 2.
The PDw.d format writes missing numerical data as –0. When the PDw.d informat reads a value of –0, the result is a value of 0.