In reply to Tom Kari.

Tom,
The task, as written, doesn't consider all of that. Its main purpose is to be an example custom task, and a convenient method for archiving simple data sets into a text-based program. I'd use it for teaching purposes, or sharing example data with colleagues or tech support. I wouldn't use it as a way to archive enterprise data with complete integrity.

Your suggestion could be an improvement for integrity (have you been reading up on SAS numeric precision?), although it would detract from the readability of the program and DATALINES records.