How to concatenate multiple variables, but only distinct and non-empty values

SilverStation21 — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 18:19:15 GMT

Hi everyone, i'm having a little trouble trying to solve a particular case.

In my original table i have 167 different columns, each one with every case possible., some are empty, some are filled, and some have the same data the other columns have.

What I am trying to do is create a new column (Final_VAR), that concatenates all the non-empty and only distinct variables!

Here is na example of what I have today:

Id | Var_1 | Var_2 | Var_3 | Var_4 |

The result should be like this:

Id | Final_Var

1 | text_1 - text_2 - text_3 - text_4

2 | text_2

3 | text_1 - text_3

4 | text_3

5 | text_4 - text_5

I've tried already using CATX, CAT, and CATT, and useid options to remove the blank spaces, but still can't figure out this case, can someone please help me?

P.S. Sorry about my english, i'm from Brazil!

Re: How to concatenate multiple variables, but only distinct and non-empty values

novinosrin — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 18:31:35 GMT

data have;
infile cards dlm='|' ;
input Id  (Var1-Var4) ($);
cards;
1   | text_1   | text_2  | text_3   | text_4  |
2   | text_2   | text_2  | text_2   | text_2  |
3   | text_1   | text_3  |              |             |
4   | text_3   | text_3  |              |             |
5   | text_4   | text_5  | text_4   | text_5  |
;

data want;
 set have;
 array v var1--var4;
 length final_var $200;
 do over v;
  if index(final_var,strip(v)) then continue;
  final_var=catx('-',final_var,v);
 end;
 drop var1-var4;
run;

topic Re: How to concatenate multiple variables, but only distinct and non-empty values in New SAS User

How to concatenate multiple variables, but only distinct and non-empty values

Re: How to concatenate multiple variables, but only distinct and non-empty values