topic Re: Range as a variable in SAS Data Management

Range as a variable

Thyl — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:33:43 GMT

Hi, i have one column named 9-24 . Is there a way to use is in a "keep" statement? I'm new to SAS and all the ways I tried failed as it's considered a range from 9 to 24.

Re: Range as a variable

stat_sas — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:46:14 GMT

Are you trying to import variable from other source into SAS? Can you please show log?

Re: Range as a variable

Thyl — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:50:31 GMT

Just merging 2 datasets.

Re: Range as a variable

stat_sas — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:54:07 GMT

So variable name is 9-24 and this is in SAS dataset?

Re: Range as a variable

Thyl — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:55:11 GMT

yes

Re: Range as a variable

stat_sas — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 20:02:14 GMT

What is the error message? Variable name does not conform to SAS naming conventions.

Re: Range as a variable

Thyl — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 20:06:29 GMT

ERROR 214-322: Variable name 19 is not valid

It was imported from excell.

Re: Range as a variable

PGStats — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 20:17:09 GMT

"9-24" is the label of the imported variable. It is not a valid SAS variable name, so it was replaced with "__24" (two underscores). You can use (keep=__24).

Re: Range as a variable

stat_sas — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 20:20:03 GMT

If you can change variable name in excel then do that. SAS variable name must begin with a letter (A-Z, either uppercase or lowercase) or an underscore (_).

Re: Range as a variable

Thyl — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 20:20:44 GMT

Didn't work. I'm using" options validvarname=any" if that helps

Re: Range as a variable

Reeza — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 21:02:44 GMT

Try

KEEP '9'n-'24'n.

Re: Range as a variable

Thyl — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 21:11:35 GMT

ERROR: Not all variables from the list '9'n-'24'n have been found

Re: Range as a variable

Reeza — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 21:12:36 GMT

Try double dash instead of single dash. If that doesn't work, please post the results from proc contents on your dataset.

proc contents data=have; run;

Re: Range as a variable

Thyl — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 21:41:41 GMT

Re: Range as a variable

Reeza — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 21:53:52 GMT

Keep '19-24'n

Wrap each variable you want to keep in a single quote followed by an n.

'VARIABLE'n

Re: Range as a variable

Patrick — Sun, 29 Jun 2014 00:54:30 GMT

The names in your table work.edu don't comply with SAS naming conventions. SAS(R) 9.3 Language Reference: Concepts, Second Edition

With"validvarname=any" you still can define such variable names in your tables but you need to quote them as literals everywhere in your code in the form: '0-2'n

I have also made the experience that some of the SAS Enterprise Guide wizards don't quote such variable names so with such names you can end up that wizard generated code doesn't work.

It is best to always use variable names which comply with the SAS naming standards. If you're using the EG import wizard then select the option (tick-box) which automatically converts non-complying variable names to complying ones during imports.

If you have already a data set from somewhere else then I would suggest you rename the variables. For your example you could use syntax as below.

proc datasets lib=work nolist;

modify edu;

rename

'0-2'n =_0_2

'13-15'n =_13_15

;

label

_0_2 = '0-2'

_13_15 = '13-15'

;

run;

contents data=edu;

run;

quit;