Finding the Range or the Max, Min in a Proc Freq Procedure

[JackZ295]

Is there a code that you can use within a proc freq procedure to find a range of values for a categorical variable? For example, if you are dividing work experience (years) into various categories (<=2, 3-9, 10-14, >15),  is there a way to find a range for the number of years worked? Thanks! 

[PaigeMiller]

... find a range of values for a categorical variable?

Years worked is categorical. PROC FREQ will automatically find all levels in the data set, so it seems to me that you could then determine visually from the PROC FREQ output the "range" (although "range", "min" and "max" is not really defined for categorical variables).

[ballardw]

Creating groups from a numeric sort of continuous variable is often done using a custom format.

Example:

proc format library=work;
value yearrange
0 - 2 = '<=2'
3 - 9 = '3 to 9'
10-14 = '10 to 14'
15 - high='15+'
;
run;

proc freq data=have;
   tables yearvariable;
   format yearvariable yearrange.;
run;

Above is designed to work with integer years. The proc format range descriptors on the left side of the = signs above include the ability to do strictly less than or strictly greater than using the < in conjunction with the - interval indicator.

A nice thing about formats is you could describe a different set of ranges such as 0 - 9 and 9+ and only have to change the format in proc freq or most other analysis procedures to use a different set of ranges.

[Reeza]

Are you looking for PROC RANK, which can create equal sized buckets or something else?

[ballardw]

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@JackZ295 wrote:

Is there a code that you can use within a proc freq procedure to find a range of values for a categorical variable? For example, if you are dividing work experience (years) into various categories (<=2, 3-9, 10-14, >15),  is there a way to find a range for the number of years worked? Thanks! 

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Likely time to provide example input data and the desired result for that input data.