Aligning Variable Values

In SAS, numeric variables are right-aligned and character values are left-aligned. You can further control their alignment by using a format.

However, when you assign a character value in an assignment statement, SAS stores the value as it appears in the statement and does not perform any alignment. Character Variable Alignment illustrates the character value alignment produced by the following program:

data aircode;
   input city $1-13;
   length airport $ 10;
   if city='San Francisco' then airport='SFO';
      else if city='Honolulu' then airport='HNL';
      else if city='New York' then airport='JFK or EWR';
      else if city='Miami' then airport='   MIA    ';
   datalines;
San Francisco
Honolulu
New York
Miami
;

proc print data=aircode;
run;

This example produces the following output:

Character Variable Alignment

                                The SAS System                              
                                                  
                      Obs    city              airport

                       1     San Francisco    SFO        
                       2     Honolulu         HNL        
                       3     New York         JFK or EWR 
                       4     Miami               MIA