NLITERAL Function

Converts a character string that you specify to a SAS name literal (n-literal)

Category: Character

Syntax

NLITERAL ( string )

Arguments

string

specifies a character constant, variable, or expression that is to be converted to a SAS name literal (n-literal).
Tip: Enclose a literal string of characters in quotation marks.
Restriction: If the string is a valid SAS variable name, by default, it is not converted to an n-literal.

Details

If the NLITERAL function returns a value to a variable that has not yet been assigned a length, by default the variable is assigned a length of 200.

The NLITERAL function converts string to a SAS name literal (n-literal). String will be converted to an n-literal, unless it qualifies under the default rules for a SAS variable name. These default rules are in effect when the SAS system option VALIDVARNAME=V7:

It begins with an English letter or an underscore .
All subsequent characters are English letters , underscores, or digits.
The length is 32 or fewer alphanumeric characters.

String , therefore, qualifies as a SAS variable name, when all of these are true.

CAUTION:

If insufficient space is available for the resulting n-literal, NLITERAL returns a blank string, prints an error message, and sets _ERROR_ to 1.

The NLITERAL function encloses the value of string in single or double quotation marks, based on the contents of string .

If string contains	NLITERAL encloses the result in
an ampersand (&)	single quotation marks
a percent sign (%)	single quotation marks
more double quotation marks than single quotation marks	single quotation marks
none of the above	double quotation marks

Examples

This example demonstrates multiple uses of NLITERAL.

 data test;     input string .;     length result $ 67;     result = nliteral(string);     datalines;  abc_123  This and That  cats & dogs  Company's profits (%)  "Double Quotes"  'Single Quotes'  ;  proc print;  title 'Strings Converted to N-Literals or Returned Unchanged';  run;

Output 4.28: Converting Strings to Name Literals with NLITERAL

 Strings Converted to N-Literals or Returned Unchanged        1  Obs    string                   result   1     abc_123                  abc_123   2     This and That            "This and That"N   3     cats & dogs              'cats & dogs'N   4     Company's profits (%)    'Company''s profits (%)'N   5     "Double Quotes"          '"Double Quotes"'N   6     'Single Quotes'          "'Single Quotes'"N

NLITERAL Function