CODEWITHSUNDEEP
loopssas
lkc_rkh
lkc_rkh

Reputation: 11

SAS do loops to create columns

I have a fixed field in a SAS dataset. Let's call it cost. I want to create 20 different columns. Cost - 5, Cost - 10, Cost - 15, and so on, but I don't want to code this out because I need to do this for several fields.

Can someone show me how I could do this in a do loop in SAS? Or if there is an easier way to do this, I would love to know. Thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2135

Answers (1)

Joe
Joe

Reputation: 63424

The general approach here is to use arrays, and possibly macros with those arrays if you are doing this for multiple things.

data class;
  set sashelp.class;
  array ages[5];        *your array, holding your 5 new columns;
  do _i = 1 to 5;       *loop over the array;
    ages[_i] = age-_i;  *or -(5*_i) or whatever you are doing;
  end;
run;

Then, if you want to do that for many variables, take those four lines, put them in a macro, create parameters for whatever might change, and call it from a datastep however many times you need. The loop is inside the macro and is a data step loop, not a macro loop.

You can explicitly name the variables in the array statement, or just take what SAS does by default. You could also create a macro to create the named variables if you want them to be named intelligently.

Upvotes: 2

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