could have been
replaced with a single dollar sign. Recall that SAS implicitly assumes that character variables will
contain eight or fewer characters unless specified otherwise. The informats $CHAR9. and $CHAR2.
could also be used. The difference between $9. and $CHAR9. is that $9. removes all blanks at the
beginning of the variable, while $CHAR9. keeps them in place. With $CHAR9., the name "Bill" would
appear in the dataset as " Bill.