When an informat is specified on the ATTRIB statement, the width of the data value should not exceed the width the informat can handle. When this occurs, an error is produced.

   ERROR:  Read Access Violation In Task [ DATASTEP )

Under the Full Code tab, the informat specified is NUMX. This informat expects to read numeric data and the width maximum is 32. Since the data value being passed to the informat is 63 characters, which exceeds 32, the above error is produced.

Under normal conditions, reading character data with a numeric informat should produce an 'invalid data' message in the log. This will occur if you specify the informat on the INPUT statement after the variable for which it applies.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	SAS Release
			Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	Base SAS	z/OS	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft® Windows® for 64-Bit Itanium-based Systems	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter 64-bit Edition	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 64-bit Edition	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server	9.1 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server	9.1 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Server	9.1 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional	9.1 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows NT Workstation	9.1 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows XP Professional	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		64-bit Enabled AIX	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		64-bit Enabled HP-UX	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		64-bit Enabled Solaris	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		HP-UX IPF	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Linux	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		OpenVMS Alpha	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Tru64 UNIX	9.1 TS1M0	9.3 TS1M0

* 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.

This code reproduces the error because the width of the value is 63 bytes and the NUMX informat can handle a maximum width of 32. Although the value to be read is character and NUMX reads numeric data, the problem occurs because of the width. The workaround code that produces the expected 'invalid data' message follows.

---

Run this code to write to a file:

data _null_;
file 'c:\myfile.txt';
put 'Reads numeric values with a comma in place of the decimal point ' '09'x;
run;

Read the data assigning the informat with the ATRRIB statement.

data a;
  infile 'c:\myfile.txt' dlm='09'x truncover dsd ;
  attrib numerf informat=numx12.;
  input numerf;
run;

One workaround is to use the COMMAX informat on the ATTRIB statement instead
of NUMX. 

data a;
   infile 'c:\myfile.txt' dlm='09'x truncover dsd ;
   attrib numerf informat=commax12.;
   input numerf;
run;


Another workaround is to specify the informat on the INPUT statement 
rather than on the ATRRIB statement.

data a;
  infile 'c:\myfile.txt' dlm='09'x truncover dsd ;
  input numerf  numx12.;
run ;


An "invalid data" message is produced in both cases because a numeric informat is reading 
character data.

ERROR:  Read Access Violation In Task [ DATASTEP )
Exception occurred at (5EFA1151)
Task Traceback

Type:	Problem Note
Priority:	medium
Topic:	SAS Reference ==> DATA Step Common Programming Tasks ==> Reading and Writing SAS Data SAS Reference ==> Statements ==> Information ==> ATTRIB

Date Modified:	2011-06-01 13:07:10
Date Created:	2009-02-25 13:49:27