Here are some examples of the contrast between using a function alone and within %SYSFUNC: You can use %SYSFUNC and %QSYSFUNC to call all of the DATA step SAS functions except DIF, DIM, HBOUND, INPUT, ...

Use the PUT function with a SAS format to convert numeric values to character values. For an example of a numeric-to-character conversion, see the PUT function in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.