CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sas
user650738
user650738

Reputation: 31

What's the easiest way to get SAS to do this?

I have a dataset that looks like this but with many, many more variable pairs:

Stuff2016   Stuff2008   Earth2016  Earth2008    Fire2016  Fire2008
   123456     5646743          45        456         456    890101
   541351   543534534          45        489         489     74456
   352352      564889          98     489489        1231       189
   464646   542235423          13      15615        1561        78
   987654     4561889          44       1212       12121       111

For each pair of almost identically named variables, I want SAS to subtract 2016 data - 2008 data without typing the variable names.

What's the easiest way to tell SAS to do this without having to specifically type the variable names? Is there a way to tell it to subtract every other variable minus the one that precedes it without mentioning the specific variable names?

Thanks a lot!!!!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 44

Answers (1)

Reeza
Reeza

Reputation: 21264

I would probably recommend three arrays but you could do it with one. This highly depends on the order of the variables which isn't a good assumption in my book. Also, how would you name the results automatically?

data want;
set have;

 array vars(*) stuff2016--fire2008;
 array diffs(*) diffs1-diffs20; *something big enough to hold difference;

do i=1 to dim(vars)-1;
  diffs(i) = vars(i)-vars(i+1);
end;
run;

Instead, I'd highly suggest you use the dictionary tables to query your variable names and dynamically generate your variable lists which are then passed onto three different arrays, one for 2016, one for 2008 and one for the difference. The libname and memname are stored in uppercase in the Dictionary table so keep that in mind.

data have;
input Stuff2016   Stuff2008   Earth2016  Earth2008    Fire2016  Fire2008;
cards;
   123456     5646743          45        456         456    890101
   541351   543534534          45        489         489     74456
   352352      564889          98     489489        1231       189
   464646   542235423          13      15615        1561        78
   987654     4561889          44       1212       12121       111
   ;
run;

proc sql;
select name into :var2016 separated by " "
from sashelp.vcolumn
where libname='WORK'
and memname='HAVE'
and name like '%2016'
order by name;


select name into :var2008 separated by " "
from sashelp.vcolumn
where libname='WORK'
and memname='HAVE'
and name like '%2008'
order by name;

select catx("_", compress(name, ,'d'), "diff") into :vardiff separated by " "
from sashelp.vcolumn
where libname='WORK'
and memname='HAVE'
and name like '%2016'
order by name;

quit;

%put &var2016.;
%put &var2008.;
%put &vardiff.;

data want;
set have;
array v2016(*) &var2016;
array v2008(*) &var2008;
array diffs(*) &vardiff;

do i=1 to dim(v2016);
diffs(i)=v2016(i)-v2008(i);
end;

run;

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions