SAS, keeping only columns that contain a certain character - sas

I would like to know is it possible to perform an action that keeps only columns that contain a certain character.
For example, lets say that I have columns: name, surname, sex, age.
I want to keep only columns that start with letter 's' (surname and sex).
How do I do that?

There's several variations on how to filter out names.
For prefixes or lists of variables it's pretty easy. For suffixes or more complex patterns it keeps more complicated. In general you can short cut lists as follows:
_numeric_ : all numeric variables
_character_ : all character variables
_all_ : all variables
prefix1 - prefix# : all variables with the same prefix assuming they're numbered
prefix: : all variables that start with prefix
firstVar -- lastVar : variables based on location between first and last variable, including the first and last.
first-numeric-lastVar : variables that are numeric based on location between first and last variable
Anything more complex requires that you filter it via the metadata list. SAS basically keeps some metadata about each data set so you can query that information to build your lists. Data about columns and types are in the sashelp.vcolumn or dictionary.column data set.
To filter all columns that have the word mpg for example:
*generate variable list;
proc sql noprint;
select name into :var_list separated by " "
from sashelp.vcolumn
where libname = 'SASHELP' and memname = 'CARS'
and lowcase(name) like '%mpg%';
quit;
*check log for results;
%put &var_list;
*verification from original table;
proc contents data=sashelp.cars;
run;
*example of usage;
data want;
set sashelp.cars;
keep &var_list;
run;
Some more details are available in this blog post and here (documentation).

If you want do keep only variables that start with an s, then use name prefix list operator :.
data want;
set have(keep=s:);
run;

It's possible.
In the code below I created a macro variable that has the name of columns that have in a table. After run the code you will have the name of columns you want.
PROC SQL;
SELECT
NAME
INTO:
NMVAR /* SAVE IN MACRO VARIABLE */
FROM SASHELP.VCOLUMN
WHERE
LIBNAME EQ "YOUR LIBNAME" AND /* THE NAME OF LIB MUST BE WRITTEN IN UPPERCASE */
MEMNAME EQ "YOUR TABLE" AND /* THE NAME OF 'TABLE/DATA SET' MUST BE WRITTEN IN UPPERCASE */
SUBSTR(NAME,1,1) EQ "S";
RUN;

For complex variable name selection filtering, such as regular expressions, or lookup in external metadata control table, you will need to process the metadata of the table itself to construct source that can be applied.
This example demonstrates two, of many, ways that source code can be generated.
metadata table from target table, Proc CONTENTS
process metadata, Proc SQL
construct source code
Expectation of name lists < 64K
SQL INTO :<macro-variable> for source code expected to be < 64K characters
Very large name lists or robust
A macro that streams source code from metadata table
From a data set with 50,000 variables select the columns whose name contains 2912
data have;
retain id 'HOOPLA12345' x1-x50000 .;
stop;
run;
* obtain metadata of target table;
proc contents noprint data=have
out=varlist_table
( keep=name
where= (
prxmatch('/x.*2912.*/',name) /* name selection criteria */
)
);
run;
* Short lists;
* construct source code for name list;
proc sql noprint;
select name into :varlist separated by ' ' from varlist_table;
data want;
set have (keep=&varlist); /* apply generated source code */
run;
* Arbitrary or Long lists expected;
%macro stream_column (data=, column=);
%local dsid index &column;
%let dsid=%sysfunc(open(&data(keep=&column)));
%if &dsid %then %do;
%syscall SET(dsid);
%do %while (0=%sysfunc(fetch(&dsid)));
&&&column. /* emit column value from table */
%end;
%let dsid = %sysfunc(close(&dsid));
%end;
%mend;
options mprint;
data want2;
set have (keep=
/* stream source code as macro text emissions */
%stream_column(data=varlist_table,column=name)
);
run;

Related

SAS - Loop through rows and calculate MD5

I want to sweep each table in a libname and calculate a hash over each row.
For that purpose, i have already a table with libname, memname, concatenated columns with ',' and number of observations
libname
memname
columns
num_obs
lib_A
table_A
col1a,col2a...colna
1
lib_A
table_B
col1b,col2b...colnb
2
lib_B
table_C
col1c,col2c...colnc
1
I first get all data into ranged macro variables (i think its easier to work, but could be wrong, ofc)
proc sql;
select libname, memname, columns, num_obs
into :lib1-, :tab1-, :column1-, :sqlobs1-
from have
where libname="&sel_livraria"; /*macro var = prompt from user*/
quit;
Just for developing guideline i made the code just to check one specific table without getting the row number of it since with a simple counter doesn't work (i get the order of the rows mess up each time i run) and it works for that purpose
%let lib=lib_A;
%let tab=table_B;
%let columns=col1b,col2b,colnb;
data want;
length check $32.;
format check $hex32.;
set &lib..&tab;
libname="&lib";
memname="&tab";
check = md5(cats(&columns));
hash = put(check,$hex32.);
keep libname memname hash;
put hash;
put _all_;
run;
So, what’s the best approach for getting a MD5 from each row (same order as tables) of all tables in a libname? I saw problems i couldn’t overcame using data steps, procs or macros.
The result i wanted if lib_A was selected in prompt were something like:
libname
memname
obs_row
hash
lib_A
table_A
1
64A29CCA15F53C83A9583841294A26AA
lib_A
table_B
1
80DAC7B9854CF71A67F9C00A7EC4D9EF
lib_A
table_B
2
0AC44CD79DAB2E33C93BB2312D3A9A40
Need some help.
Tks in advance.
You're pretty close. This is how I would approach it. We'll create a macro with three parameters: data, lib, and out. data is the dataset you have with the column information. lib is the library you want to pull from your dataset, and out is the output dataset that you want to have.
We'll read each column into an individual macro variable:
memname1
memname2
memname3
libname1
libname2
libname3
etc.
From here, we simply need to loop over all of the macro variables and apply them where appropriate. We can easily count how many there are in a data step. All we need to do is add double-ampersands to resolve them correctly. For more information on why this is, check out this MWSUG paper.
%macro get_md5(data=, lib=, out=);
/* Save all variables into macro variables:
memname1 memname2 ...
columns1 columns2 ...
*/
data _null_;
set &data.;
where upcase(libname)=upcase("&lib.");
call symputx(cats('memname', _N_), memname);
call symputx(cats('columns', _N_), columns);
call symputx(cats('obs', _N_), obs);
call symputx('n_datasets', _N_);
run;
/* Loop through all the datasets and access each macro variable */
%do i = 1 %to &n_datasets.;
/* Double ampersand needed:
First, resolve &i. to get &memname1
Then resolve &mename1 to get the value stored in the macro variable memname1
*/
%let memname = &&memname&i.;
%let columns = &&columns&i.;
%let obs = &&obs&i.;
/* Calculate md5 in a temporary dataset */
data _tmp_;
length lib $8.
memname $32.
obs_row 8.
hash $32.
;
set &lib..&memname.(obs=&obs.);
lib = "&lib.";
memname = "&memname.";
obs_row = _N_;
hash = put(md5(cats(&columns.)), $hex32.);
keep libname memname obs_row hash;
run;
/* Overwrite the dataset so we don't keep appending */
%if(&i. = 1) %then %do;
data &out.;
set _tmp_;
run;
%end;
%else %do;
proc append base=&out. data=_tmp_;
run;
%end;
%end;
/* Remove temporary data */
proc datasets lib=work nolist;
delete _tmp_;
quit;
%mend;
Example:
data have;
length libname memname columns $15.;
input libname$ memname$ columns$ obs;
datalines;
sashelp cars make,model,msrp 1
sashelp class age,height,name 2
sashelp comet dose,length,sample 1
;
run;
%get_md5(data=have, lib=sashelp, out=want);
Output:
libname memname obs_row hash
sashelp cars 1 258DADA4843E7068ABAF95667E881B7F
sashelp class 1 29E8F4F03AD2275C0F191FE3DAA03778
sashelp class 2 DB664382B88BE7E445418B1A1C8CE13B
sashelp comet 1 210394B77E7696506FDEFD78890A8AB9
I would make a macro that takes as input the four values in your metadata dataset. Note that commas are anathema to SAS programs, especially macro code, so make the macro so it can accept space delimited variable lists (like normal SAS program statements do).
To reduce the risk of name conflict I will name the variable using triple underscores and then rename them back to human friendly names when the dataset is written.
%macro next_ds(libname,memname,num_obs,varlist);
data next_ds;
length ___1 $8 ___2 $32 ___3 8 ___4 $32 ;
___1 = "&libname";
___2 = "&memname";
___3 + 1;
set &libname..&memname(obs=&num_obs keep=&varlist);
___4 = put(md5(cats(of &varlist)),$hex32.);
keep ___1-___4 ;
rename ___1=libname ___2=memname ___3=obs_row ___4=hash;
run;
%mend next_ds;
Let's make some test metadata that reference datasets everyone should have.
data have;
infile cards truncover ;
input libname :$8. memname :$32. num_obs columns $200.;
cards;
sashelp class 3 name,sex,age
sashelp cars 2 make,model
;
And make sure the target dataset does not already exists.
%if %sysfunc(exist(want)) %then %do;
proc delete data=want; run;
%end;
Now you can call that macro once for each observation in your source metadata dataset. There is no need to generated oodles of macro variables. Instead you can use CALL EXECUTE() to generate the macro calls directly from the dataset.
We can replace the commas in the column lists when making the macro call. You can add in a PROC APPEND step after each macro call to aggregate the results into a single dataset.
data _null_;
set have;
call execute(cats(
'%nrstr(%next_ds)(',libname,',',memname,',',num_obs
,',',translate(columns,' ',','),')'
));
call execute('proc append data=next_ds base=want force; run;');
run;
Notice that wrapping the macro call in %NRSTR() makes the SAS log easier to read.
1 + %next_ds(sashelp,class,3,name sex age)
2 + proc append data=next_ds base=want force; run;
3 + %next_ds(sashelp,cars,2,make model)
4 + proc append data=next_ds base=want force; run;
Results:
Obs libname memname obs_row hash
1 sashelp class 1 5425E9CEDA1DDEB71B2692A3C7050A8A
2 sashelp class 2 C532D227D358A3764C2D225DC8C02D18
3 sashelp class 3 13AD5F1517E0C4494780773B6DC15211
4 sashelp cars 1 777C60693BF5E16F38706C89301CD0A8
5 sashelp cars 2 07080C9321145395D1A2BCC10FBE6B83
Note that CATS() might not be the best method for generating the string to pass to the MD5() function. That can generate the same string for different combinations of the source variables. For example 'AB' || 'CD' is the same as 'A' || 'BCD'. Perhaps just use CAT() instead.
Stu's approach is nice, and will work most of the time but will fall over when you have wiiiide variables, a large number of variables, variables with large precision, and other edge cases.
So for the actual hashing part, you might consider this macro, which is extensively tested within Data Controller for SAS:
https://core.sasjs.io/mp__md5_8sas.html
Usage:
data _null_;
set sashelp.class;
hashvar=%mp_md5(cvars=name sex, nvars=age height weight);
put hashvar=;
run;

How to select columns only containing the certain string in SAS [duplicate]

I would like to know is it possible to perform an action that keeps only columns that contain a certain character.
For example, lets say that I have columns: name, surname, sex, age.
I want to keep only columns that start with letter 's' (surname and sex).
How do I do that?
There's several variations on how to filter out names.
For prefixes or lists of variables it's pretty easy. For suffixes or more complex patterns it keeps more complicated. In general you can short cut lists as follows:
_numeric_ : all numeric variables
_character_ : all character variables
_all_ : all variables
prefix1 - prefix# : all variables with the same prefix assuming they're numbered
prefix: : all variables that start with prefix
firstVar -- lastVar : variables based on location between first and last variable, including the first and last.
first-numeric-lastVar : variables that are numeric based on location between first and last variable
Anything more complex requires that you filter it via the metadata list. SAS basically keeps some metadata about each data set so you can query that information to build your lists. Data about columns and types are in the sashelp.vcolumn or dictionary.column data set.
To filter all columns that have the word mpg for example:
*generate variable list;
proc sql noprint;
select name into :var_list separated by " "
from sashelp.vcolumn
where libname = 'SASHELP' and memname = 'CARS'
and lowcase(name) like '%mpg%';
quit;
*check log for results;
%put &var_list;
*verification from original table;
proc contents data=sashelp.cars;
run;
*example of usage;
data want;
set sashelp.cars;
keep &var_list;
run;
Some more details are available in this blog post and here (documentation).
If you want do keep only variables that start with an s, then use name prefix list operator :.
data want;
set have(keep=s:);
run;
It's possible.
In the code below I created a macro variable that has the name of columns that have in a table. After run the code you will have the name of columns you want.
PROC SQL;
SELECT
NAME
INTO:
NMVAR /* SAVE IN MACRO VARIABLE */
FROM SASHELP.VCOLUMN
WHERE
LIBNAME EQ "YOUR LIBNAME" AND /* THE NAME OF LIB MUST BE WRITTEN IN UPPERCASE */
MEMNAME EQ "YOUR TABLE" AND /* THE NAME OF 'TABLE/DATA SET' MUST BE WRITTEN IN UPPERCASE */
SUBSTR(NAME,1,1) EQ "S";
RUN;
For complex variable name selection filtering, such as regular expressions, or lookup in external metadata control table, you will need to process the metadata of the table itself to construct source that can be applied.
This example demonstrates two, of many, ways that source code can be generated.
metadata table from target table, Proc CONTENTS
process metadata, Proc SQL
construct source code
Expectation of name lists < 64K
SQL INTO :<macro-variable> for source code expected to be < 64K characters
Very large name lists or robust
A macro that streams source code from metadata table
From a data set with 50,000 variables select the columns whose name contains 2912
data have;
retain id 'HOOPLA12345' x1-x50000 .;
stop;
run;
* obtain metadata of target table;
proc contents noprint data=have
out=varlist_table
( keep=name
where= (
prxmatch('/x.*2912.*/',name) /* name selection criteria */
)
);
run;
* Short lists;
* construct source code for name list;
proc sql noprint;
select name into :varlist separated by ' ' from varlist_table;
data want;
set have (keep=&varlist); /* apply generated source code */
run;
* Arbitrary or Long lists expected;
%macro stream_column (data=, column=);
%local dsid index &column;
%let dsid=%sysfunc(open(&data(keep=&column)));
%if &dsid %then %do;
%syscall SET(dsid);
%do %while (0=%sysfunc(fetch(&dsid)));
&&&column. /* emit column value from table */
%end;
%let dsid = %sysfunc(close(&dsid));
%end;
%mend;
options mprint;
data want2;
set have (keep=
/* stream source code as macro text emissions */
%stream_column(data=varlist_table,column=name)
);
run;

SAS - Add origin table name as a column in report

I have an output table that contains 300+ variables from 30 different tables that are joined by UNION, which is used for modelling. I have created a macro that creates a report with a number of statistics, such as mean, min/max values etc. using this output table. I am trying to add a column to the report that details which table(s) the variables come from. I say table(s) as some of the variables are shared across different tables. I want to avoid having the same variable in the report multiple times as the statistics are the same irrespective of what table the variable comes from. Is there an efficient way to do this?
Instead of UNION consider using a DATA STEP and then use the INDSNAME option instead.
data want;
set sashelp.class sashelp.cars indsname=source;
source_dataset = source;
run;
If it were me, I would loop over each of the union datasets and just put the table name and variable names into a compiled dataset. You probably have all the table names in either a macro list or typed out, so you can just add a few more lines of code to run proc contents on each of those to compile a full list of table and variable names. Note that like your example, there will be duplicate variable names that you can modify after the table is compiled:
** create different tables **;
data height; set sashelp.class(keep=name height); run;
data weight; set sashelp.class(keep=name weight); run;
data sex; set sashelp.class(keep=name sex); run;
** put your datasets into a list either manually or dynamically **;
/* manually */
%let ds_list=height weight sex;
/* dynamically -- be careful to include only tables in your union */
proc sql noprint;
select MEMNAME
into: ds_list separated by " "
from sashelp.vmember
where libname = "WORK" and memname not in ("SASMACR","FORMATS");
quit;
%put &ds_list.;
** loop over each table to put the table name and variables in a dataset **;
%MACRO get_names(ds_list);
%do i=1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&ds_list.));
%let ds = %scan(&ds_list.,&i.);
proc contents data = &ds. noprint
out=names_&ds.(keep=MEMNAME NAME rename=(MEMNAME=SOURCE_DATASET));
run;
proc append data = names_&ds. base=full force; run;
%end;
%MEND;
%get_names(&ds_list.);
I managed to do this using the following:
Create table with source tables.
PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE SOURCES AS
SELECT NAME
,MEMNAME
FROM DICTIONARY.COLUMNS
WHERE LIBNAME='LIBNAME'
ORDER BY 1,2;
RUN;
Join to my stats table.
PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE STATS_NEW AS
SELECT memname AS TABLE_NAME,a.*
FROM STATS a
LEFT JOIN SOURCES b
ON a.name = b.name
GROUP BY a.name
ORDER BY a.name;
QUIT;
Transpose data and add in comma separators.
DATA STATS_TRANSPOSE (drop=TABLE_NAME);
LENGTH INPUT_TABLES $1000;
SET STATS_NEW;
BY name;
RETAIN INPUT_TABLES;
IF FIRST.name THEN DO; INPUT_TABLES=TABLE_NAME; END;
IF NOT FIRST.name
THEN DO;
INPUT_TABLES=CATS(INPUT_TABLES,', ',TABLE_NAME);
END;
IF LAST.name THEN DO;
IF name IN ('FIELD1','FIELD2')
THEN DO; INPUT_TABLES='ALL'; END;
OUTPUT;
END;
RUN;

Reading a list of name to a SAS Macro

I am trying to read a list of values into a macro, so that the macro variable would contain the table name and create a column that would contain the table name.
My attempt, which is wrong, was trying to use the code below, and erroring out because of the line " '&tbl' as Table_Dt ". The code below is inefficient, so feel free to enhance it. Thanks for your help.
%macro flat(tbl);
proc sql exec feedback stimer noprint outobs=5;
CREATE TABLE &tbl as
SELECT
ID,
DOB,
'&tbl' as Table_Dt
FROM &tbl..flat_file;
QUIT;
%mend flat;
%flat(flat0113);
%flat(flat0213);
...
%flat(flat1213);
As you are basically processing a list, this could also be done using call execute. No need to write all the information to macro variables. All tables/libraries are already stored in the sashelp tables and therefore are ready for list processing.
data _null_;
set sashelp.vslib (where=(substr(libname,1,4) = 'FLAT')) end =eof;
if _n_ = 1 then call execute ('proc sql exec feedback stimer noprint outobs=5;');
call execute ('
CREATE TABLE '|| libname ||' AS
SELECT ID,
DOB,
"'||compress(libname)||'" as Table_Dt
FROM '||compress(libname)||'.flat_file
;
');
if eof then call execute ('QUIT;');
run;
Macros in quotation marks will only resolve with double quotes, not single. If you want to do a more efficient way, you can do so with the following modified code. I am assuming that you are reading from libraries named flat0113, flat0213, etc.
Step 1: Get a list of all the libnames with the word "flat" in it
proc sql noprint;
select distinct libname
, count(libname)
into: tbl_list separated by ' '
, total_tbls
from sashelp.vmember
where libname LIKE 'FLAT%'
;
quit;
This will create two macro variables: &tbl_list, and &total_tbls.
&tbl_list holds the values flat0113 flat0213 flat ... flat1213.
&total_tbls holds the total number of values in &tbl_list.
Step 2: Loop through the newly created list
%macro readTables;
%do i = 1 %to &total_tbls;
%let tbl = %scan(tbl_list, &i);
proc sql exec feedback stimer noprint outobs=5;
CREATE TABLE &tbl as
SELECT
ID,
DOB,
"&tbl" as Table_Dt
FROM &tbl..flat_file;
quit;
%end;
%mend;
%readTables;
This will read each individual value from &tbl_list one by one until the very end of the list.

SAS - Creating variables from macro variables

I have a SAS dataset which has 20 character variables, all of which are names (e.g. Adam, Bob, Cathy etc..)
I would like a dynamic code to create variables called Adam_ref, Bob_ref etc.. which will work even if there a different dataset with different names (i.e. don't want to manually define each variable).
So far my approach has been to use proc contents to get all variable names and then use a macro to create macro variables Adam_ref, Bob_ref etc..
How do I create actual variables within the dataset from here? Do I need a different approach?
proc contents data=work.names
out=contents noprint;
run;
proc sort data = contents; by varnum; run;
data contents1;
set contents;
Name_Ref = compress(Name||"_Ref");
call symput (NAME, NAME_Ref);
%put _user_;
run;
If you want to create an empty dataset that has variables named like some values you have in a macro variables you could do something like this.
Save the values into macro variables that are named by some pattern, like v1, v2 ...
proc sql;
select compress(Name||"_Ref") into :v1-:v20 from contents;
quit;
If you don't know how many values there are, you have to count them first, I assumed there are only 20 of them.
Then, if all your variables are character variables of length 100, you create a dataset like this:
%macro create_dataset;
data want;
length %do i=1 %to 20; &&v&i $100 %end;
;
stop;
run;
%mend;
%create_dataset; run;
This is how you can do it if you have the values in macro variable, there is probably a better way to do it in general.
If you don't want to create an empty dataset but only change the variable names, you can do it like this:
proc sql;
select name into :v1-:v20 from contents;
quit;
%macro rename_dataset;
data new_names;
set have(rename=(%do i=1 %to 20; &&v&i = &&v&i.._ref %end;));
run;
%mend;
%rename_dataset; run;
You can use PROC TRANSPOSE with an ID statement.
This step creates an example dataset:
data names;
harry="sally";
dick="gordon";
joe="schmoe";
run;
This step is essentially a copy of your step above that produces a dataset of column names. I will reuse the dataset namerefs throughout.
proc contents data=names out=namerefs noprint;
run;
This step adds the "_Refs" to the names defined before and drops everything else. The variable "name" comes from the column attributes of the dataset output by PROC CONTENTS.
data namerefs;
set namerefs (keep=name);
name=compress(name||"_Ref");
run;
This step produces an empty dataset with the desired columns. The variable "name" is again obtained by looking at column attributes. You might get a harmless warning in the GUI if you try to view the dataset, but you can otherwise use it as you wish and you can confirm that it has the desired output.
proc transpose out=namerefs(drop=_name_) data=namerefs;
id name;
run;
Here is another approach which requires less coding. It does not require running proc contents, does not require knowing the number of variables, nor creating a macro function. It also can be extended to do some additional things.
Step 1 is to use built-in dictionary views to get the desired variable names. The appropriate view for this is dictionary.columns, which has alias of sashelp.vcolumn. The dictionary libref can be used only in proc sql, while th sashelp alias can be used anywhere. I tend to use sashelp alias since I work in windows with DMS and can always interactively view the sashelp library.
proc sql;
select compress(Name||"_Ref") into :name_list
separated by ' '
from sashelp.vcolumn
where libname = 'WORK'
and memname = 'NAMES';
quit;
This produces a space delimited macro vaiable with the desired names.
Step 2 To build the empty data set then this code will work:
Data New ;
length &name_list ;
run ;
You can avoid assuming lengths or create populated dataset with new variable names by using a slightly more complicated select statement.
For example
select compress(Name)||"_Ref $")||compress(put(length,best.))
into :name_list
separated by ' '
will generate a macro variable which retains the previous length for each variable. This will work with no changes to step 2 above.
To create populated data set for use with rename dataset option, replace the select statement as follows:
select compress(Name)||"= "||compress(_Ref")
into :name_list
separated by ' '
Then replace the Step 2 code with the following:
Data New ;
set names (rename = ( &name_list)) ;
run ;