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Nathan123
Nathan123

Reputation: 763

how to set multiple data sets in the work folder using a Do loop?

I have 100 individual data sets of demographic information with distinct district names created in my work folder in the following format";

data exampleofdistrict;
input districtname$ ASIAN BLACK COLORED WHITE;
cards;
        Aberdeen    0.13 69.14  11.2  19.5
;
run;

each individual data set like the one above has a district name

What I want is to combine all these individual distrct datasets to into a single comprehensive dataset;

*I have considered using the regular set statment such as;

    data districtscompiled;
    set Aberdeen and *99 other districts in the work folder;
    run;

However, my question is, is there a better way to do this than typing the name of each individual data set under the set statement? For instance, could I maybe do a loop within the set statement?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 462

Answers (1)

Reeza
Reeza

Reputation: 21264

I would say implement a naming convention, specifically add a prefix to every data set. It could be as simple as _DISTRICTNAME or DIST_Aberdeen, Dist_Banff. Then you can use the short cut notation to set them all at once, using the colon operator or the - data set list option. 

data combined;
 set dist_: ; *note the colon here!;
run;

If you use a numeric list you can do:

data want;
 set district1 - district99; *you need to know the number of districts in this method;
run;

Data Set Lists in documentation

Upvotes: 2

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