LENGTH Statement: z/OS

Specifies how many bytes SAS uses to store a variable's value.
Valid in: In a DATA step
z/OS specifics: Length of numeric variables
See: LENGTH Statement in SAS Statements: Reference

Syntax

LENGTH variables <$> length . . . <DEFAULT=n > ;

Required Arguments

This syntax is a simplified version of the LENGTH statement syntax; see SAS(R) 9.3 Statements: Reference for the complete syntax and its explanation.

length
can range from 2 to 8 for numeric variables and from 1 to 32,767 for character variables. The minimum value for length for a numeric value might be greater than 2 when you create a SAS data set that is written in a data representation other than the native data representation for SAS on z/OS.
n
changes from 8 to n the default number of bytes that SAS uses for storing the values of newly created numeric variables. Under z/OS, n can range from 2 to 8.