SAS let statement: refer to a cell value? - sas

In SAS, is it possible to refer a %let statement to a value located in a database?
For instance, the value of my n in %let n=50 depends on some value calculated in one of my databases, e.g., first row plus first column. And since that value gets modified 100 times in my loop I don't want to manually enter that value.

There's several ways to do this. Here's two:
proc sql;
select a+b into :n
from your_table
where some_condition;
quit;
This populations a macro variable, &n, with the sum of the variables a and b. The condition you specify should be true only for one row of your table.
Another approach:
data tmp;
set your_table;
if _n_=1 then do;
call symputn('n',a+b);
end;
run;

Related

SAS targed encored

Hi,
Can someone explain to me what a given code sequence does step by step?**
I must describe it in detail what is happening in turn
%macro frequency_encoding(dataset, var);
proc sql noprint;
create table freq as
select distinct(&var) as values, count(&var) as number
from &dataset
group by Values ;
create table new as select *, round(freq.number/count(&var),00.01) As freq_encode
from &dataset left join freq on &var=freq.values;
quit;
data new(drop=values number &var);
set new;
rename freq_encode=&var;
run;
data new;
set new;
keep &var;
run;
data dane(drop = &var);
set dane;
run;
data dane;
set dane;
set new;
run;
The SQL is first finding the frequency of each value of the variable. Then it divides those counts by the total number of non-missing values and rounds that percentage to two decimal places (or integers when you think of the ratio as a percentage).
This could be done in one step with:
proc sql noprint;
create table new as
select *,round(number/count(&var),0.01) as freq_encode
from (select *,&var as values,count(&var) as number
from &dataset
group by &var
)
;
quit;
It is not clear what the DANE dataset is supposed to be. If &DATESET does not equal DANE then those last four data steps make no sense. If it does then it is a convoluted way to replace the original variable with the percentage.
The first one is basically trying to rename the calculated percentage as the original variable and eliminate the original variable and the other two intermediate variables used in calculating the percentage.
The second one is dropping all of the variables except the new percentage.
The third one is dropping the original variable from "dane".
The last one is adding the new variable back to "dane".
Assuming DANE should be replaced with &DATASET then those four data steps could be reduced to one:
data &dataset;
set &dataset(drop=&var);
set new(keep=freq_encode rename=(freq_encode=&var));
run;
It is probably best not to overwrite your original dataset in that way. So perhaps you should add an OUT parameter to your macro to name to new dataset you want to create.
You could have avoided all of those data steps by just adding the DROP= and RENAME= dataset options to the dataset generated by the SQL query.
So perhaps you want something like this:
%macro frequency_encoding(dataset, var,out);
proc sql noprint;
create table &out(drop=&var number rename=(freq_encode=&var)) as
select *,round(number/count(&var),0.01) as freq_encode
from (select *,count(&var) as number
from &dataset
group by &var
)
;
quit;
%mend ;
%frequency_encoding(sashelp.class,sex,work.class);

How to select the largest variable in a dataset and assign it to a macro in sas

Salutations, I need to take the largest value in a column. So I can turn it into a variable and use it in another query. something like.
%let maxyear = MAX(STay_yr)
help!
You can use proc SQL and into:
proc sql;
select max(STay_yr) into :maxyear
from some_dataset;
quit;
And another david25272's variant:
data _null_;
set have end = last;
retain max_STay_yr;
if STay_yr > max_STay_yr then max_STay_yr = STay_yr;
if last then call symput("maxyear",max_STay_yr);
run;
Variable maxyear will have the maximum value.
You can take the values from it further as &maxyear.

Get values of Macro Variables in a SAS Table

I have a set of input macro variables in SAS. They are dynamic and generated based on the user selection in a sas stored process.
For example:There are 10 input values 1 to 10.
The name of the macro variable is VAR_. If a user selects 2,5,7 then 4 macro variables are created.
&VAR_0=3;
&VAR_=2;
&VAR_1=5;
&VAR_2=7;
The first one with suffix 0 provides the count. The next 3 provides the values.
Note:If a user select only one value then only one macro variable is created. For example If a user selects 9 then &var_=9; will be created. There will not be any count macro variable.
I am trying to create a sas table using these variables.
It should be like this
OBS VAR
-----------
1 2
2 5
3 7
-----------
This is what I tried. Not sure if this is the right way to do approach it.
It doesn't give me a final solution but I can atleast get the name of the macro variables in a table. How can I get their values ?
data tbl1;
do I=1 to &var_0;
VAR=CAT('&VAR_',I-1);
OUTPUT;
END;
RUN;
PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE TBL2 AS
SELECT I,
CASE WHEN VAR= '&VAR_0' THEN '&VAR_' ELSE VAR END AS VAR
from TBL1;
QUIT;
Thank You for your help.
Jay
SAS helpfully stores them in a table for you already, you just need to parse out the ones you want. The table is called SASHELP.VMACRO or DICTIONARY.MACROS
Here's an example:
%let var=1;
%let var2=3;
%let var4=5;
proc sql;
create table want as
select * from sashelp.vmacro
where name like 'VAR%';
quit;
proc print data=want;
run;
I think the real issue is the inconsistent behavior of the stored process. It only creates the 0 and 1 variable when there are multiple selections. I think that your example is a little off. If the value of VAR_0 is three then their should be a VAR_3 macro variable. Also the value of VAR_ and VAR_1 should be set to the same thing.
To fix this in the past I have done something like this. First let's assign the parameter name a macro variable so that the code is reusable for other programs.
%let name=VAR_;
Then first make sure the minimal macro variables exist.
%global &name &name.0 &name.1 ;
Then make sure that you have a count by setting the 0 variable to 1 when it is empty.
%let &name.0 = %scan(&&&name.0 1,1);
Then make sure that you have a 1 variable. Since it should have the same value as the macro variable without a suffix just re-assign it.
%let &name.1 = &&&name ;
Now your data step is easier.
data want ;
length var $32 value $200 ;
do i=1 to &&&name.0 ;
var=cats(symget('name'),i);
value=symget(var);
output;
end;
run;
I don't understand your numbering scheme and recommend changing it, if you can; the &var_ variable is very confusing.
Anyway, the easiest way to do this is SYMGET. That returns a value from the macro symbol table which you can specify at runtime.
%let VAR_0=3;
%let VAR_=2;
%let VAR_1=5;
%let VAR_2=7;
data want;
do obs = 1 to &var_0.;
var = input(symget(cats('VAR_',ifc(obs=1,'',put(obs-1,2.)))),2.);
output;
end;
run;

How to change the column headers of a sas dataset into an observation?

I have created a sas code which generates many sas datasets. Now I want to append all of them to a single excel file . So first I want to convert all the column headers of sas datasets as first observation. Then leave space between these datasets (adding a blank observation). How can we do it?
one way to do this would be to use dictionary.columns
proc sql;
create table Attribute as
select * from dictionary.columns;
Read through the table and check what attributes you are interested in. For your case you might be interested in the column "NAME" <- consist of the name of all columns.
Modify the table by adding where statement to the proc sql based on the identity of the column ( from which library / what type of file / name of file) e.g. where upcase(libname)= "WORK"
data attribute;
array column [ n ] $ length ;
do i=1 to n;
set attribute ( keep = name) ;
column [ i ] = name ;
end;
run;
Then I would proceed with data step. You could use macro variable to store the value of column's names by select variable into : but anyhow you still need to hardcode the size for the array n or any other method that store value into one observation . Also remember define the length and the type of array accordingly. You can give name to the variable in the result dataset Attribute by adding var1-varnafter the length at array statement.
For simplicity I use set statement to read observation one and one and store the value of column NAME, which is the official column name derived when using dictionary.columns into the array
Note that creating a non-temporary array would create variable(s) .
Add if you want to add the blank,
data younameit ;
merge attribute attribute(firstobs=2 keep=name rename=(name=_name));
output;
if name ne _name then do;
call missing(of _all_);
output;
end;
run;
As two datasets start with different observation and column names do not duplicate within one dataset, the next row of a valid observation ( derived from the first output statement in the resulting dataset would be empty due to call missing ( of _all_ ) ; output;
Sounds like you just want to combine the datasets and write the results to the Excel file. Do you really need the extra empty row?
libname out xlsx 'myfile.xlsx';
data out.report ;
set ds1 ds2 ...;
run;
Ensure that all your columns are character (or numeric, substitute numeric), then in your data step use:
array names{*} _character_;
do i=1 to dim(names);
call label(names{i}, names{i});
end;
output;

SAS sum variables using name after a proc transpose

I have a table with postings by category (a number) that I transposed. I got a table with each column name as _number for example _16, _881, _853 etc. (they aren't in order).
I need to do the sum of all of them in a proc sql, but I don't want to create the variable in a data step, and I don't want to write all of the columns names either . I tried this but doesn't work:
proc sql;
select sum(_815-_16) as nnl
from craw.xxxx;
quit;
I tried going to the first number to the last and also from the number corresponding to the first place to the one corresponding to the last place. Gives me a number that it's not correct.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
You can't use variable lists in SQL, so _: and var1-var6 and var1--var8 don't work.
The easiest way to do this is a data step view.
proc sort data=sashelp.class out=class;
by sex;
run;
*Make transposed dataset with similar looking names;
proc transpose data=class out=transposed;
by sex;
id height;
var height;
run;
*Make view;
data transpose_forsql/view=transpose_forsql;
set transposed;
sumvar = sum(of _:); *I confirmed this does not include _N_ for some reason - not sure why!;
run;
proc sql;
select sum(sumvar) from transpose_Forsql;
quit;
I have no documentation to support this but from my experience, I believe SAS will assume that any sum() statement in SQL is the sql-aggregate statement, unless it has reason to believe otherwise.
The only way I can see for SAS to differentiate between the two is by the way arguments are passed into it. In the below example you can see that the internal sum() function has 3 arguments being passed in so SAS will treat this as the SAS sum() function (as the sql-aggregate statement only allows for a single argument). The result of the SAS function is then passed in as the single parameter to the sql-aggregate sum function:
proc sql noprint;
create table test as
select sex,
sum(sum(height,weight,0)) as sum_height_and_weight
from sashelp.class
group by 1
;
quit;
Result:
proc print data=test;
run;
sum_height_
Obs Sex and_weight
1 F 1356.3
2 M 1728.6
Also note a trick I've used in the code by passing in 0 to the SAS function - this is an easy way to add an additional parameter without changing the intended result. Depending on your data, you may want to swap out the 0 for a null value (ie. .).
EDIT: To address the issue of unknown column names, you can create a macro variable that contains the list of column names you want to sum together:
proc sql noprint;
select name into :varlist separated by ','
from sashelp.vcolumn
where libname='SASHELP'
and memname='CLASS'
and upcase(name) like '%T' /* MATCHES HEIGHT AND WEIGHT */
;
quit;
%put &varlist;
Result:
Height,Weight
Note that you would need to change the above wildcard to match your scenario - ie. matching fields that begin with an underscore, instead of fields that end with the letter T. So your final SQL statement will look something like this:
proc sql noprint;
create table test as
select sex,
sum(sum(&varlist,0)) as sum_of_fields_ending_with_t
from sashelp.class
group by 1
;
quit;
This provides an alternate approach to Joe's answer - though I believe using the view as he suggests is a cleaner way to go.