topic Re: how to deal with spaces in variable names using SAS DI in SAS Data Management

how to deal with spaces in variable names using SAS DI

sassy7 — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 12:39:45 GMT

I am writing a job for selecting some observations from the AUDIT data source of SAS VA: the data source contains three variables that have spaces in their name (the variables are: User ID, Time Stamp and Remote Address). With SAS Studio, I was able to write and execute a program that creates a smaller dataset using data step (or proc sql), but I am having issue using the same code in SAS DI.

the code is the following:

libname xyz cas caslib=XYZ datalimit=all;

data work.audit_select;
set xyz.audit;
where Application="reports" and
URI contains ".report" and
'User ID'n not contains "sas.";
if intck ('day', input(substr('Time Stamp'n,1,10), yymmdd10.), today()) < 3 then output;

run;

the error message I receive is

ERROR: The name Time Stamp is not a valid SAS name.

Any suggestion how to handle spaces in names in SAS DI studio?

Re: how to deal with spaces in variable names using SAS DI

Tom — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 12:50:49 GMT

Why would it complain about 'Time Stamp'n and not 'User ID'n.

If you have to working with non-standard variable names then make sure the VALIDVARNAME option is set to ANY.

options validvarname=any;

Re: how to deal with spaces in variable names using SAS DI

acordes — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 13:59:52 GMT

working with cas I have the same issue now and then.

The way to solve it is placing the code into a datastep.runcode in order to rename the variable.

It doesn't make sense to me WHY it works but it does.

Every time I have this error message (normally related to variable names longer than 32) I can fix it using this trick.

In SAS Studio use the caslib menu, open the caslib, open the table and drag&drop the variable name into the code.

During the import sometimes blank characters or other strange ones are woven into the variable name.

proc cas;
action table.tableexists result=rc/
name="audit" caslib="xyz";
run; 
if rc.exists then dataStep.runCode result=r status=rc / code=
'data public.temp;
	set xyz.audit;
rename "time stamp"n=time_stamp; 
run;';

data work.audit_select;
set public.temp;
where Application="reports" and
URI contains ".report" and
'User ID'n not contains "sas.";
if intck ('day', input(substr(Time_Stamp,1,10), yymmdd10.), today()) < 3 then output;
run;

Re: how to deal with spaces in variable names using SAS DI

sassy7 — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 14:29:09 GMT

Thanks it worked!