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

Details

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.