SAS 9.1 Language Reference Concepts

Definition of Missing Values

missing value

• is a value that indicates that no data value is stored for the variable in the current observation. There are three kinds of missing values:

  • numeric

  • character

  • special numeric.

  By default, SAS prints a missing numeric value as a single period (.) and a missing character value as a blank space. See 'Special Missing Values' on page 102 for more information about special numeric missing values.