When using ISO time informat B8601TM without an explicit length specification, SAS may use the characters in memory following the variable as part of the input.

To replicate:
• specify character variable with length $6
• specify second character variable with length $2
• specify informat without length (B8601TM.), default length is 8 in documentation.

The result is:

   NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT

The workaround is to specify explicit length when using informat to match the length of the input variable: B8601TM6.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	SAS Release
			Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	Base SAS	z/OS	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Microsoft® Windows® for 64-Bit Itanium-based Systems	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter 64-bit Edition	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 64-bit Edition	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Microsoft® Windows® for x64	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Microsoft Windows XP Professional	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Windows Vista	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		64-bit Enabled AIX	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		64-bit Enabled HP-UX	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		64-bit Enabled Solaris	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		HP-UX IPF	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Linux	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Linux for x64	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		OpenVMS on HP Integrity	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2
		Solaris for x64	9.2 TS1M0	9.2 TS2M2

* For software releases that are not yet generally available, the Fixed Release is the software release in which the problem is planned to be fixed.

---

/* specify character variable with length $6 
   specify second character variable with length $2 
   specify informat without length
   See Invalid argument to function INPUT  message 
*/

data one;
  x='123456';
  pm = 'xx';
  t = input(x,b8601tm.);
  put t time.;
run;

/* specify character variable with length $6 
   specify second character variable with length $2 
   specify informat with length of 6
   No Invalid argument message 
*/
data two;
  x='123456';
  pm = 'xx';
  t = input(x,b8601tm6.);
  put t time.;
run;

/* specify character variable with length $6 
   specify second character variable with length $2
     containing valid characters 
   specify informat without length
   No Invalid argument message 
*/
data three;
  x='123456';
  pm = '00';
  t = input(x,b8601tm.);
  put t time.;
run;

2    
3    /* specify character variable with length $6
4       specify second character variable with length $2
5       specify informat without length
6       See Invalid argument to function INPUT  message
7    */
8    
9    data one;
10     x='123456';
11     pm = 'xx';
12     t = input(x,b8601tm.);
13     put t time.;
14   run;

NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT at line 12 column 7.
       .
x=123456 pm=xx t=. _ERROR_=1 _N_=1
NOTE: Mathematical operations could not be performed at the following places. The results 
      of the operations have been set to missing values.
      Each place is given by: (Number of times) at (Line):(Column).
      1 at 12:7   
NOTE: The data set WORK.ONE has 1 observations and 3 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.07 seconds
      cpu time            0.04 seconds
      

15   
16   /* specify character variable with length $6
17      specify second character variable with length $2
18      specify informat with length of 6
19      No Invalid argument message
20   */
21   data two;
22     x='123456';
23     pm = 'xx';
24     t = input(x,b8601tm6.);
25     put t time.;
26   run;

12:34:56
NOTE: The data set WORK.TWO has 1 observations and 3 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.00 seconds
      cpu time            0.00 seconds
      

27   
28   /* specify character variable with length $6
29      specify second character variable with length $2
30        containing valid characters
31      specify informat without length
32      No Invalid argument message
33   */
34   data three;
35     x='123456';
36     pm = '00';
37     t = input(x,b8601tm.);
38     put t time.;
39   run;

12:34:56
NOTE: The data set WORK.THREE has 1 observations and 3 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.00 seconds
      cpu time            0.00 seconds

ISO time informat B8601TM used without a specified length uses characters following the input variable if the input variable is shorter than 8 bytes.

Type:	Problem Note
Priority:	low
Topic:	SAS Reference ==> Informats ==> Date and Time

Date Modified:	2009-06-26 15:23:00
Date Created:	2009-01-19 16:54:21