SAS progamming problem in using data delimiter * - file

Question

I'm trying to define, using the data in the products.txt file, a data set with the delimiter *.
products.txt data:
hartie 2 birotica
creione 10 birotica
apa 6 alimente
ceai 8 alimente
tricou 100 haine
I tried to use the delimiter *:
data produse;
infile '/home/u47505185/produse.txt' dlm='*';
input Nume $ Pret Categorie $;
run;
dsd command is changing space into , . i want the command for changing space into *

Answer 1

The DSD option, in addition to the other things it does, changes the DEFAULT delimiter from space to comma. But you can override the default delimiter to any list of characters you want by using the DLM= (also known as DELIMITER=) option, whether or not you are using the DSD option.
From the comments it sounds like you just want to do text manipulation. Just change the spaces to stars. Make sure to remove any trailing spaces (unless you want those to also become stars).
data _null_;
infile '/home/u47505185/produse.txt';
input;
file '/home/u47505185/produse_star.txt';
_infile_=translate(trimn(_infile_),'*',' ');
put _infile_;
run;

Answer 2

To display missing numeric values as an asterik (*), in output or data viewers, use this setting
OPTIONS MISSING='*';
The INFILE DLM= option is for specifying what character(s) in the data file are to be used to separate the variables being INPUT.
DLM does NOT specify a replacement value for missing values.
You told SAS to use * as a field separator.
So what is happening ? The LOG will tell you. Essentially Nume was read as a 8 character variable (default length) and the delimiter never appeared. So, Pret, a numeric variable, had nothing to be read-in from and was assigned a missing value. When viewed in output or data viewer, the value appears as a ..
data want;
infile datalines dlm='*'; * '/home/u47505185/produse.txt' dlm='*';
input Nume $ Pret Categorie $;
datalines;
hartie 2 birotica
creione 10 birotica
apa 6 alimente
ceai 8 alimente
tricou 100 haine
;
Log
25 data want;
26 infile datalines dlm='*'; * '/home/u47505185/produse.txt' dlm='*';
27 input Nume $ Pret Categorie $;
28 datalines;
NOTE: Invalid data for Pret in line 30 1-80.
RULE: ----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+--
31 apa 6 alimente
NOTE: Invalid data errors for file CARDS occurred outside the printed range.
NOTE: Increase available buffer lines with the INFILE n= option.
Nume=hartie 2 Pret=. Categorie=apa 6 al _ERROR_=1 _N_=1
NOTE: Invalid data for Pret in line 33 1-80.
NOTE: LOST CARD.
34 ;
NOTE: Invalid data errors for file CARDS occurred outside the printed range.
NOTE: Increase available buffer lines with the INFILE n= option.
Nume=ceai 8 a Pret=. Categorie= _ERROR_=1 _N_=2
NOTE: SAS went to a new line when INPUT statement reached past the end of a line.
NOTE: The data set WORK.WANT has 1 observations and 3 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds
By default, what is shown to you when a value is missing?
Numeric variables, . or the current setting for session option MISSING="<one-char>"
Character variables, . The missing value for character variables is a single space.