Scalars are matrices that have only one element. You can define a scalar by typing the matrix name on the left side of an assignment statement and its value on the right side. The following statements create and display several examples of scalar literals:

proc iml;
x = 12;
y = 12.34;
z = .;
a = 'Hello';
b = "Hi there";
print x y z a b;

The output is displayed in Figure 5.1. Notice that you need to use either single quotes (') or double quotes (") when defining a character literal. Using quotes preserves the case and embedded blanks of the literal. It is also always correct to enclose data values within braces ({ }).