specifies a character
constant, variable, or expression.
Details
Length of Returned Variable
In a DATA step, if the
TRIMN function returns a value to a variable that has not previously
been assigned a length, then that variable is given the length of
the argument.
Assigning the results
of TRIMN to a variable does not affect the length of the receiving
variable. If the trimmed value is shorter than the length of the receiving
variable, SAS pads the value with new blanks as it assigns it to the
variable.
The Basics
TRIMN copies a character
argument, removes all trailing blanks, and returns the trimmed argument
as a result. If the argument is blank, TRIMN returns a string with
a length of zero. TRIMN is useful for concatenating because concatenation
does not remove trailing blanks.
Comparisons
The TRIMN and TRIM functions
are similar. TRIMN returns a string with a length of zero for a blank
string. TRIM returns one blank for a blank string.
Example
The following SAS statements
produce these results.