What function can prevent converting character values to numeric values that generates a warning in the log?

The INPUT() function is designed to convert character values to numeric values while applying specific informats. When this function is used, it allows for explicit conversion, thus reducing the risk of generating warnings in the log related to the type of conversion being performed.

When a character string is intended to be converted to a numeric value, using INPUT() ensures that the SAS system knows how to interpret the character data correctly based on the specified informat. This explicit conversion helps prevent any unintended results or warnings that may arise if the conversion were to happen implicitly (e.g., by simple arithmetic operations with mixed data types).

Other functions listed, such as PUB(), PROPCASE(), and SCAN(), do not specifically serve the purpose of converting character strings to numeric values. They have different functionalities: PUB() is generally not associated with conversion; PROPCASE() is used for formatting character strings into proper case (capitalizing the first letter of each word), and SCAN() extracts words from a character string based on a delimiter but does not perform any kind of numeric conversion. Therefore, the specificity of the INPUT() function makes it the correct choice for preventing warnings associated with character-to-numeric conversions.