The ASSIGN statement
indicates whether SAS variable names and formats are automatically
generated. Where long names must be shortened to the SAS length limit
of eight characters, variable names are automatically generated.
An editing statement
such as ASSIGN appears after the CREATE and database-description statements.
See "Create Statement" for additional information.
You can use the value
NO (or N) to modify SAS variable names and formats when you create
an access descriptor. Use NO (or N) when you create view descriptors
that are based on this access descriptor. When creating an access
descriptor, use the RENAME statement to change SAS variable names.
Use the FORMAT statement to change SAS formats.
Specify a YES (or Y)
value for this statement to generate unique SAS variable names from
the first eight characters of the PC file column names. With YES,
you can change the SAS variable names only in the access descriptor.
The SAS variable names that are saved in an access descriptor are
always used when view descriptors are created from the access descriptor.
You cannot change the variable names in the view descriptors.
SAS variable names are
generated as follows:
-
If the column name is longer than
eight characters, SAS uses only the first eight characters. If truncating
results in duplicate names, numbers are appended to the ends of the
names to prevent duplicate names.
-
If the column name in the PC file
contains blank characters, SAS ignores it.
-
If the column name in the PC file
starts with a digit (0 through 9), SAS adds the character Z before
it.
-
If the column name contains characters
that are invalid in SAS names (including national characters), SAS
replaces the invalid characters with underscores (_).
When the
SAS/ACCESS
interface encounters the next CREATE statement to create an access
descriptor, the ASSIGN statement is reset to the default NO value.