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

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

• A. You get a warning
• B. You get a missing value
• C. It converts the character to numeric
• D. The value is automatically discarded

Answer: (B)

When a character value is read into a variable that is defined to be numeric, the behavior in SAS leads to the assignment of a missing value to that numeric variable. This means that the character data cannot be interpreted or converted into a numeric format, resulting in no valid numeric value being stored. In SAS, when a non-numeric character string is encountered during the assignment to a numeric variable, it will not generate a warning message or automatically convert the value; instead, the result is a missing value. Missing values in SAS are represented by a period (.) and signify that no valid data could be read into that variable. If you were to have a situation where a character string "abc" is assigned to a numeric variable, the numeric variable would end up being missing because "abc" cannot be converted into a numeric representation.

When a character value is read into a variable that is defined to be numeric, the behavior in SAS leads to the assignment of a missing value to that numeric variable. This means that the character data cannot be interpreted or converted into a numeric format, resulting in no valid numeric value being stored.

In SAS, when a non-numeric character string is encountered during the assignment to a numeric variable, it will not generate a warning message or automatically convert the value; instead, the result is a missing value. Missing values in SAS are represented by a period (.) and signify that no valid data could be read into that variable.

If you were to have a situation where a character string "abc" is assigned to a numeric variable, the numeric variable would end up being missing because "abc" cannot be converted into a numeric representation.