NULLCHAR= Data Set Option

Indicates how missing SAS character values are handled during insert, update, DBINDEX=, and DBKEY= processing.
Valid in: DATA and PROC steps (when accessing DBMS data using SAS/ACCESS software)
Default: SAS
Data source: Aster nCluster, DB2 under UNIX and PC Hosts, DB2 under z/OS, Greenplum, HP Neoview, Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Netezza, ODBC, OLE DB, Oracle, Sybase, Sybase IQ, Teradata
See: BULKLOAD= data set option, DBINDEX= data set option, DBKEY= data set option, DBNULL= data set option, NULLCHARVAL= data set option

Syntax

NULLCHAR=SAS | YES | NO

Syntax Description

SAS
indicates that missing character values in SAS data sets are treated as NULL values if the DBMS allows these. Otherwise, they are treated as the NULLCHARVAL= value.
YES
indicates that missing character values in SAS data sets are treated as NULL values if the DBMS allows these. Otherwise, an error is returned.
NO
indicates that missing character values in SAS data sets are treated as the NULLCHARVAL= value—regardless of whether the DBMS allows NULL values for the column.

Details

This option affects insert and update processing. It also applies when you use the DBINDEX= and DBKEY= data set options.
It works with the NULLCHARVAL= data set option, which determines what is inserted when NULL values are not allowed. The DBMS treats all missing SAS numeric values (represented in SAS as '.') as NULLvalues.
Oracle: For interactions between NULLCHAR= and BULKLOAD=ZX`11, see the bulk-load topic in the Oracle section.