BESTw. Format: z/OS

SAS software chooses the best notation.
Category: Numeric
Alignment: right
Default: 12
Range: 1-32 bytes
z/OS specifics: Writes output as EBCDIC, minimum and maximum values
See: BESTw. Format in SAS Formats and Informats: Reference

Details

Numbers are written using EBCDIC code with one digit per byte. Because the value is output as EBCDIC text characters, you can print it without further formatting.
The range of the magnitude of numbers is from 5.4 x 10-79 to 7.2 x 1075. Any number that is outside this range causes an overflow error. All numeric variables that are represented by SAS software are within this range.
The following table contains examples that illustrate the use of BESTw. under z/OS:
Value
Format
Results
Notes
1234
best6.
bb1234
-1234
best6.
b-1234
12.34
best6.
b12.34
12345678
best8.
1.2346E8
truncated and rounded
Note: In these examples, the Value column represents the value of the SAS numeric variable. The Results column shows what the numeric output looks like when viewed from a text editor. The b characters in the Results column indicate blank spaces. For a table of commonly used EBCDIC characters, see EBCDIC Code: Commonly Used Characters.