Input/Display formats for variable data files

Following are guidelines for the differences between how data is displayed and how it is stored internally depending on the format:

For data formats of Numeric, no thousands separator, Numeric, using comma as thousands separator and Numeric, using dot as thousands separator type, values can be entered with any number of decimal positions up to a maximum of 16 and the entire value is stored internally. The data view of this value displays only the defined number of decimal places and rounds values with more decimals. The entire value, up to a width of 12 characters (including the decimal as a character), is used in computations.
For variables of String type, internally values are padded to the left for the maximum width. For example, a String variable with a width of 5 and a value of Week, is stored internally as ' Week'. For display purposes, the values appear in the data grid as they were entered. For example, 'Week ' or ' Week'.
For variables of Date or time format type, slashes, dashes, spaces, commas and periods can be used as delimiters between day, month and year values. Three-letter abbreviations (for example, Jan, Feb, etc.) or complete names (for example, January, February, etc.) can be used as values for month. Dates of the format mm/dd/yy will display with slashes as the delimiters and numbers for the values of month, day and year (for example, 01/15/2012). Dates of the format dd.mmm.yy will display with a period as the delimiter with numbers for the values of day and year and a three-letter abbreviation for the month (for example, 10.Jan.2014). Dates are stored internally as the number of seconds from a particular starting date.
For variables of Date or time format type, colons, periods or spaces can be used as delimiters between hours, minutes and seconds. Time values are displayed with colons as delimiters. Times are stored internally as a number of seconds that represents a time interval. (For example, 9:00:00 is stored as 32400 (60 seconds per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 9 hours)).