Compare value to max of variable - sas

Question

I have a dataset with a lot of lines and I'm studying a group of variables.
For each line and each variable, I want to know if the value is equal to the max for this variable or more than or equal to 10.
Expected output (with input as all variables without _B) :
(you can replace T/F by TRUE/FALSE or 1/0 as you wish)
+----+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+
| ID | Var1 | Var1_B | Var2 | Var2_B | Var3 | Var3_B |
+----+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+
| A | 1 | F | 5 | F | 15 | T |
| B | 1 | F | 5 | F | 7 | F |
| C | 2 | T | 5 | F | 15 | T |
| D | 2 | T | 6 | T | 10 | T |
+----+------+--------+------+--------+------+--------+
Note that for Var3, the max is 15 but since 15>=10, any value >=10 will be counted as TRUE.
Here is what I've maid up so far (doubt it will be any help but still) :
%macro pleaseWorkLittleMacro(table, var, suffix);
proc means NOPRINT data=&table;
var &var;
output out=Varmax(drop=_TYPE_ _FREQ_) max=;
run;
proc transpose data=Varmax out=Varmax(rename=(COL1=varmax));
run;
data Varmax;
set Varmax;
varmax = ifn(varmax<10, varmax, 10);
run; /* this outputs the max for every column, but how to use it afterward ? */
%mend;
%pleaseWorkLittleMacro(MY_TABLE, VAR1 VAR2 VAR3 VAR4, _B);
I have the code in R, works like a charm but I really have to translate it to SAS :
#in a for loop over variable names, db is my data.frame, x is the
#current variable name and x2 is the new variable name
x.max = max(db[[x]], na.rm=T)
x.max = ifelse(x.max<10, x.max, 10)
db[[x2]] = (db[[x]] >= x.max) %>% mean(na.rm=T) %>% percent(2)

Answer 1

An old school sollution would be to read the data twice in one data step;
data expect ;
input ID $ Var1 Var1_B $ Var2 Var2_B $ Var3 Var3_B $ ;
cards;
A 1 F 5 F 15 T
B 1 F 5 F 7 F
C 2 T 5 F 15 T
D 2 T 6 T 10 T
;
run;
data my_input;
set expect;
keep ID Var1 Var2 Var3 ;
proc print;
run;
It is a good habit to declare the most volatile things in your code as macro variables.;
%let varList = Var1 Var2 Var3;
%let markList = Var1_B Var2_B Var3_B;
%let varCount = 3;
Read the data twice;
data my_result;
set my_input (in=maximizing)
my_input (in=marking);
Decklare and Initialize arrays;
format &markList $1.;
array _vars [&&varCount] &varList;
array _maxs [&&varCount] _temporary_;
array _B [&&varCount] &markList;
if _N_ eq 1 then do _varNr = 1 to &varCount;
_maxs(_varNr) = -1E15;
end;
While reading the first time, Calculate the maxima;
if maximizing then do _varNr = 1 to &varCount;
if _vars(_varNr) gt _maxs(_varNr) then _maxs(_varNr) = _vars(_varNr);
end;
While reading the second time, mark upt to &maxMarks maxima;
if marking then do _varNr = 1 to &varCount;
if _vars(_varNr) eq _maxs(_varNr) or _vars(_varNr) ge 10
then _B(_varNr) = 'T';
else _B(_varNr) = 'F';
end;
Drop all variables starting with an underscore, i.e. all my working variables;
drop _:;
Only keep results when reading for the second time;
if marking;
run;
Check results;
proc print;
var ID Var1 Var1_B Var2 Var2_B Var3 Var3_B;
proc compare base=expect compare=my_result;
run;

Answer 2

This is quite simple to solve in sql
proc sql;
create table my_result as
select *
, Var1_B = (Var1 eq max_Var1)
, Var1_B = (Var2 eq max_Var2)
, Var1_B = (Var3 eq max_Var3)
from my_input
, (select max(Var1) as max_Var1
, max(Var2) as max_Var2
, max(Var3) as max_Var3)
;
quit;
(Not tested, as our SAS server is currently down, which is the reason I pass my time on Stack Overflow)
If you need that for a lot of variables, consult the system view VCOLUMN of SAS:
proc sql;
select ''|| name ||'_B = ('|| name ||' eq max_'|| name ||')'
, 'max('|| name ||') as max_'|| name
from sasHelp.vcolumn
where libName eq 'WORK'
and memName eq 'MY_RESULT'
and type eq 'num'
and upcase(name) like 'VAR%'
;
into : create_B separated by ', '
, : select_max separated by ', '
create table my_result as
select *, &create_B
, Var1_B = (Var1 eq max_Var1)
, Var1_B = (Var2 eq max_Var2)
, Var1_B = (Var3 eq max_Var3)
from my_input
, (select max(Var1) as max_Var1
, max(Var2) as max_Var2
, max(Var3) as max_Var3)
;
quit;
(Again not tested)

Answer 3

After Proc MEANS computes the maximum value for each column you can run a data step that combines the original data with the maximums.
data want;
length
ID $1 Var1 8 Var1_B $1. Var2 8 Var2_B $1. Var3 8 Var3_B $1. var4 8 var4_B $1;
input
ID Var1 Var1_B Var2 Var2_B Var3 Var3_B ; datalines;
A 1 F 5 F 15 T
B 1 F 5 F 7 F
C 2 T 5 F 15 T
D 2 T 6 T 10 T
run;
data have;
set want;
drop var1_b var2_b var3_b var4_b;
run;
proc means NOPRINT data=have;
var var1-var4;
output out=Varmax(drop=_TYPE_ _FREQ_) max= / autoname;
run;
The neat thing the VAR statement is that you can easily list numerically suffixed variable names. The autoname option automatically appends _ to the names of the variables in the output.
Now combine the maxes with the original (have). The set varmax automatically retains the *_max variables, and they will not get overwritten by values from the original data because the varmax variable names are different.
Arrays are used to iterate over the values and apply the business logic of flagging a row as at max or above 10.
data want;
if _n_ = 1 then set varmax; * read maxes once from MEANS output;
set have;
array values var1-var4;
array maxes var1_max var2_max var3_max var4_max;
array flags $1 var1_b var2_b var3_b var4_b;
do i = 1 to dim(values); drop i;
flags(i) = ifc(min(10,maxes(i)) <= values(i),'T','F');
end;
run;
The difficult part above is that the MEANS output creates variables that can not be listed using the var1 - varN syntax.
When you adjust the naming convention to have all your conceptually grouped variable names end in numeric suffixes the code is simpler.
* number suffixed variable names;
* no autoname, group rename on output;
proc means NOPRINT data=have;
var var1-var4;
output out=Varmax(drop=_TYPE_ _FREQ_ rename=var1-var4=max_var1-max_var4) max= ;
run;
* all arrays simpler and use var1-varN;
data want;
if _n_ = 1 then set varmax;
set have;
array values var1-var4;
array maxes max_var1-max_var4;
array flags $1 flag_var1-flag_var4;
do i = 1 to dim(values); drop i;
flags(i) = ifc(min(10,maxes(i)) <= values(i),'T','F');
end;
run;

Answer 4

You can use macro code or arrays, but it might just be easier to transform your data into a tall variable/value structure.
So let's input your test data as an actual SAS dataset.
data expect ;
input ID $ Var1 Var1_B $ Var2 Var2_B $ Var3 Var3_B $ ;
cards;
A 1 F 5 F 15 T
B 1 F 5 F 7 F
C 2 T 5 F 15 T
D 2 T 6 T 10 T
;
First you can use PROC TRANSPOSE to make the tall structure.
proc transpose data=expect out=tall ;
by id ;
var var1-var3 ;
run;
Now your rules are easy to apply in PROC SQL step. You can derive a new name for the flag variable by appending a suffix to the original variable's name.
proc sql ;
create table want_tall as
select id
, cats(_name_,'_Flag') as new_name
, case when col1 >= min(max(col1),10) then 'T' else 'F' end as value
from tall
group by 2
order by 1,2
;
quit;
Then just flip it back to horizontal and merge with the original data.
proc transpose data=want_tall out=flags (drop=_name_);
by id;
id new_name ;
var value ;
run;
data want ;
merge expect flags;
by id;
run;