Functions and CALL Routines

VARLEN Function

Returns the length of a SAS data set variable.

Category:

SAS File I/O

Syntax
Arguments
Comparisons
Examples
See Also

Syntax

VARLEN(data-set-id,var-num)

Arguments

data-set-id

specifies the data set identifier that the OPEN function returns.

var-num

specifies the number of the variable's position in the SAS data set.

Tip:	This number is next to the variable in the list that is produced by the CONTENTS procedure.

Tip:	The VARNUM function returns this number.

Comparisons

VLENGTH returns the compile-time (allocated) size of the given variable.

Examples

This example obtains the length of the variable ADDRESS in the SAS data set MYDATA.

%let dsid=%sysfunc(open(mydata,i));
%if &dsid %then
   %do;
      %let len=%sysfunc(varlen(&dsid,
                       %sysfunc(varnum
                       (&dsid,ADDRESS))));
      %let rc=%sysfunc(close(&dsid));
   %end;

This example creates a data set that contains the name, type, and length of the variables in MYDATA.

data vars;
   length name $ 8 type $ 1;
   drop dsid i num rc;
   dsid=open("mydata","i");
   num=attrn(dsid,"nvars");
   do i=1 to num;
      name=varname(dsid,i);
      type=vartype(dsid,i);
      length=varlen(dsid,i);
      output;
   end;
   rc=close(dsid);
run;