topic Re: Create all possible combination out of dynamic length variables in SAS Data Management

Create all possible combination out of dynamic length variables

BogdanC — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 10:56:16 GMT

I have three macro variables that contai some dynamic values - the number of values or the values themselves may change in the script flow.

%let x = 1 2 5;
%let y = 10 15;
%let z = 5 15 25 60 80;

I need to create all possible combinations out of these variables and save the data - it would contain 3*2*5 = 30 rows. I looked at proc plan and it doesn't seem to ba able to do this, not directly at least. Also tried this:

data GridSearch;
 do a = SYMGET('x');
 do b = SYMGET('y');
 do c = SYMGET('z');
  output;
 end;
 end;
 end;
run;

Apparently this is not the correct way to reference maro varaible as it returns the as text rather than lsit of values.

Any ideas?

Re: Create all possible combination out of dynamic length variables

RW9 — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 11:18:52 GMT

Well, to answer your question first, do loops need to, when a list of values is provided, be separated by commas not spaces:

%let x = 1,2,5;
%let y = 10,15;
%let z = 5,15,25,60,80;

data GridSearch;
 do a = &x.;
   do b = &y.;
     do c = &z.;
       output;
     end;
   end;
 end;
run;

Now, from my side, I would increment the indentation for each loop to make the code readable.

Re: Create all possible combination out of dynamic length variables

Ksharp — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 11:24:58 GMT


%let x = 1 2 5;
%let y = 10 15;
%let z = 5 15 25 60 80;

data want;
 do x=%sysfunc(translate(&x,%str(,),%str( )));
  do y=%sysfunc(translate(&y,%str(,),%str( )));
   do z=%sysfunc(translate(&z,%str(,),%str( )));
    output;
   end;
  end;
 end;
run;