I am trying to convert the variable "MAGE" from character to numeric in SAS
I tried new_MAGE = input(MAGE, informat.);
and received and an error
You need to use an actual informat specification, not the string informat..
For most values try the normal numeric informat. The INPUT() function does not care if you use a width on the informat specification that is larger than the length of the string being read. So just use:
data want;
set have;
new_MAGE = input(MAGE, 32.);
run;
If the values in MAGE have thousands separators then you might want to use the COMMA informat instead.
data want;
set have;
new_MAGE = input(MAGE, comma32.);
run;