Question

When I am exporting a SAS dataset to csv; it is trimming all the leading spaces in the characters.
Please help me to retain all the leading spaces in the csv output. The statement used is:

Proc Export Data = Globl_Mth_Sumry
OutFile = "&GMUPath.\20&RptYr._&RptMt.\03 Output\01 GMU\&Brnd_Abbr.\&Brnd._&Mkt._Globl_Mth_Sumry_&RptMt.&RptYr.&NeuronQTR..csv" 
DBMS = CSV Replace; 
Run;

So, there is a column containing the list of countries which is like

Asia
India
China
etc.
But the csv file is showing it like:-
Asia
India
China.

Please help.

Answer 1

I find this an interesting question, largely because I was confident I knew the answer… to find out I didn’t.

This is technically a solution, and if you’re in a time crunch perhaps is sufficient, though I suspect it’s too unwieldy to use in a practical fashion. First I generate the data (input using $CHAR8. to preserve leading spaces), then I output it using fixed column output rather than list output.

data test;
input
@1 x $CHAR8.
@9 y $CHAR8.;
format x y $char8.;
datalines;
     USA   China
  Canada N Korea
  Russia  Mexico
;;;;
run;

 data _null_;
 file "c:\temp\test.csv" lrecl=80 dropover;
 set test;
 if _n_ = 1 then do;
 put "x,y";
 end;
 put @1 x $char8. @9 "," @10 y $char8.;
 run;

Unfortunately, using DBMS=CSV does not seem to allow $CHAR8. to function as you would expect. I don’t know why that is. The solution I expected was to write it out like this:

data _null_;
file 'c:\temp\test.csv' delimiter=',' DROPOVER lrecl=32767;
  if _n_ = 1 then        /* write column names or labels */
   do;
     put
        "x"
     ','
        "y"
     ;
   end;
 set  TEST;
 put x $ :char8. y $ :char8.;
  run;

which is essentially the code printed to the log by PROC EXPORT, then with :$CHAR8. after each variable. For whatever reason, that (and a bunch of other similar things) didn’t work. ODS CSV also does not seem to work for preserving leading spaces.