year_2008 descending
Number
A numeric value. Number tokens include the following:
• integers. Integers are numbers that do not contain a decimal point or an exponent.
Examples of integers include 1, 72, and 5000. SAS date, time, and datetime
constants such as '24AUG2008'D are integers, as are hexadecimal constants such
as 0C4X.
• real (floating-point) numbers. Floating-point numbers contain a decimal point or
an exponent. Examples include numbers such as 2.35, 5., 2.3E1, and 5.4E− 1.
Special character
Any character that is not a letter, number, or underscore. The following characters
are some special characters:
= + − % & ; ( ) #
The maximum length of any type of token is 32,767 characters. A token ends when the
tokenizer encounters one of the following situations:
• the beginning of a new token.
• a blank after a name or number token.
• in a literal token, a quotation mark of the same type that started the token. There is an
exception. A quotation mark followed by a quotation mark of the same type is
interpreted as a single quotation mark that becomes part of the literal token. For
example, in 'Mary''s', the fourth quotation mark terminates the literal token. The
second and third quotation marks are interpreted as a single character, which is
included in the literal token.
438 Appendix 3 • SAS Tokens