varlen

Evaluate the variables and recommend lengths based on maximum values.

%varlen (indata = input data set,
                   round =
round the length,
                   output =
output file);

 

Where

Is Type...

And represents...

indata C Source data set to be documented.  This is specified with a two level dot notation: libname.dataname.  If only one level is specified, then all the dataset defined in the specified libname will be documented.  You can also specify individual datasets with two level names with space separation.
round C (optional) The round option will round the maximum length numeric value.  Valid options include:
  • 10 (default)
  • 20
  • none
output C (optional) Name of the output HTML file that contains the results.  If this were not to be specified then a varlen.html file is created in the current location.
overflow C (optional) For variables that are longer than 200 characters, this option will create a new dataset containing additional "overflow" variables that contain the values that go beyond 200 characters.  The overflow parameter will accept a two level data specification with the format of:

libname.dataname

This new dataset will contain original dataset with the additional overflow variables.

Details
This utility will evaluate all the character variables and determine the maximum length based on the longest data value of the variable.  By default the length is rounded up to the nearest tenth.  For example, if its 23, the length will be set to 30.  If the round option is set to 20, it will round to the nearest length plus 10 for buffer.  So 23 will be rounded to 40.  A none will set the length to the exact maximum length.

It will create a backup of the original dataset with the name of "backup".  For example, if the data was AE, the backup data will be named AE_BACKUP.  The data will then have a data step applied retaining any label, format, or informat while updating the length.

Example

%varlen (indata = inlib.adverse,
                   output =
c:\temp\varlen.html);

%varlen (indata = inlib,
                   round = 20,

                   output =
c:\temp\all_data.html);
 

    CDISC Builder - CDISC Data Tools Software,  Meta-Xceed Inc.© 2009
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