topic Re: Combining 4 Columns in New SAS User

Combining 4 Columns

ANGirl — Sun, 24 Nov 2019 02:18:00 GMT

Hi all,

I am looking to proc import an excel file with 4 columns. Then, I would like to merge all 4 columns together IN SAS. Problem is all 4 columns have a different amount of observations. So, when I proc print this, how do I merge the columns without getting any blank observations?

Re: Combining 4 Columns

PGStats — Sun, 24 Nov 2019 04:34:49 GMT

Try

length merged $64;

merged = catx(",", of col1-col4);

The catx function concatenates its arguments, separated by the first argument. It ignores missing values.

Re: Combining 4 Columns

ballardw — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:09:49 GMT

@PGStats wrote:

Try

length merged $64;

merged = catx(",", of col1-col4);

The catx function concatenates its arguments, separated by the first argument. It ignores missing values.

By default a Missing value for a numeric will appear as . in the result.

data example;
    col1='abc';
    col2=.;
    col3=3;
    col4='pdq';
    merged= catx(',',of col1-col4);
run;

/* will yield Merged = "abc,.,3,pdq" */

If you set the missing character to blank then the concatenated version will be missing

options missing=' ';
data example;
    col1='abc';
    col2=.;
    col3=3;
    col4='pdq';
    merged= catx(',',of col1-col4);
run;

/* merged = "abc,3,pdq" */

So if you have numeric values you may have one or more issues to resolve in determining the exact result desired.

Since this post started with importing Excel it is hard to determine what type of values you may have.