title: SAS: formats/informats/types. Their differences
body: <p>another question about formats and informats:</p>
  
  <p>formats are using for output (for show me and other user data in tables), so, i don't care about it, if i want read data from tables in programming way, yes?</p>
  
  <p>but what is informat?</p>
  
  <p>i have data step with code like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code> data Out; 
         attrib __fromDate __ToDate informat=ddmmyy16. format=worddatx32.
                __name __country length = $10
         ;
  
   set InputTab;
  
   /*see Dates*/
   retain __fromDate .;
   retain __ToDate .; 
  
  /*see Strings*/
   retain __name "";
   retain __country "";
  
   __fromDate=coalesce(__fromDate,fromDate);
   __ToDate=coalesce(__fromDate,fromDate);
   __name=coalescec(__name,name);
   __country=coalescec(__country,country);
  
  run;     
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Does this code work and what type have all these vars on each statement?</p>
  
  <p>Am i right, that informat and type of var are similar? </p>
  
  <p>And also, are dates (<code>__ToDate</code>, <code>__FromDate</code> ) have a numeric type? (their missing value is dot <code>.</code>, not quotes <code>""</code>)?</p>
  
  <p>Thank you!</p>