What happens if a numeric value is read into a character specified variable?

When a numeric value is read into a character specified variable in SAS, the numeric value is automatically converted to character format and stored correctly. SAS handles this conversion seamlessly, allowing the numeric value to be represented as a string of characters. For example, if the numeric value 123 is assigned to a character variable, it will be stored as the string "123".

This automatic conversion capability is part of SAS's flexible data handling features, which allow for smooth data manipulation without requiring explicit conversions in many cases. It is important to keep in mind, however, that while the value remains valid in character form, any arithmetic operations performed on it will require an explicit conversion back to numeric format. The other options suggest issues that will not occur in this scenario, such as errors or loss of the numeric value, which are not applicable when SAS performs the conversion correctly.