topic Re: how to deal variable name "a2-4" in New SAS User

how to deal variable name "a2-4"

walterwang — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:19:52 GMT

I imported a table from Excel. The variable name is "a2-4". How to deal with these names?

Thanks

Re: how to deal variable name "a2-4"

Patrick — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:24:35 GMT

Depending on how you import there might be options available for SAS to translate source column names into valid SAS variable names.

If it's not a valid name then you must quote it as a SAS name literal when you use the column in code as done below:

'a2-4'n = 5;

Re: how to deal variable name "a2-4"

SASKiwi — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:43:58 GMT

Setting the SAS option VALIDVARNAME to V7 will automatically translate variable names to valid SAS names. So a2-4 will be renamed to a2_4. This is actually a good practice to follow as it avoids having to reference non-valid SAS variable names as @Patrick describes: 'a2-4'n

Re: how to deal variable name "a2-4"

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 07:18:05 GMT

Use the "name literal" as suggested by @Patrick to immediately rename them to valid SAS names (like a2_4).