topic Re: Assigning random Alphanumeric IDs to empty cells in All Things Community

Assigning random Alphanumeric IDs to empty cells

Escada — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 08:45:13 GMT

Hi,

I have an existing table which contains a column listing IDs. However some of its cells contain an empty ID:

ID Age

XYS 29

STW 55

WTR 36

I would like to assign Alphanumeric IDs (20 digits) to these empty cells in order for them to be filled, but never repeated. This should also happen, irrespectively of the number of rows of the data set, as follows:

ID Age

XYSRW 29

RAND1 60

STWQT 55

WTRWQ 36

RAND2 45

Can somebody help me on this issue, with a simple statement that fills automatically these empty fields randomly?

Thank you so much.

Fernando

Re: Assigning random Alphanumeric IDs to empty cells

RW9 — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 08:48:28 GMT

Hi,

data want (drop=cnt);
  set have;
  retain cnt;
  if _n_=1 then cnt=1;
  if missing(id) then do;
    id=cats("RAND",put(cnt,best.));
    cnt=cnt+1;
  end;
run;

Re: Assigning random Alphanumeric IDs to empty cells

Escada — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 08:48:55 GMT

Please do not take into account the lenght of the ID of the fields in your answer, as it is not important.

Re: Assigning random Alphanumeric IDs to empty cells

Escada — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 09:00:54 GMT

Perfect!
Thank you so much for your help, RW9.

Kind regards,
Fernando