topic Re: New variable coding problem with if/then/else statement in New SAS User

New variable coding problem with if/then/else statement

njgrubic — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 16:50:35 GMT

Hi,

I am trying to recode the variable "income" (numeric) into 5 stratified categories (new stratified variable = ses). Although my output demonstrates that only one category ("Q5") is being coded.

Is there a problem with my if/then/else statements?

data data1;

set data0;

if income<25000 then ses='Q1';
if income<50000>=25000 then ses='Q2';
if income<80000>=50000 then ses='Q3';
if income<130000>=80000 then ses='Q4';
if income>=130000 then ses='Q5';
else sestatus=' ';

run;

Re: New variable coding problem with if/then/else statement

Reeza — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 16:58:26 GMT

This is how it should be coded.

data data1;

set data0;

if income < 25000 then ses='Q1';
else if  25000 < income <= 50000 then ses='Q2';
else if  50000 < income <= 80000 then ses='Q3';
else if 80000 < income < 130000 then ses='Q4';
else if income >= 130000 then ses='Q5';
else sestatus=' ';

run;

Note that if the income variable is missing it will get coded to Q1 with this logic. If you want to account for that you should do it as the first step.

data data1;

set data0;
if missing(income) then call missing(ses);
else if income < 25000 then ses='Q1';
else if  25000 < income <= 50000 then ses='Q2';
else if  50000 < income <= 80000 then ses='Q3';
else if 80000 < income < 130000 then ses='Q4';
else if income >= 130000 then ses='Q5';
else sestatus=' ';

run;

@njgrubic wrote:

Hi,

I am trying to recode the variable "income" (numeric) into 5 stratified categories (new stratified variable = ses). Although my output demonstrates that only one category ("Q5") is being coded.

Is there a problem with my if/then/else statements?

data data1;

set data0;

if income<25000 then ses='Q1';
if income<50000>=25000 then ses='Q2';
if income<80000>=50000 then ses='Q3';
if income<130000>=80000 then ses='Q4';
if income>=130000 then ses='Q5';
else sestatus=' ';

run;

Re: New variable coding problem with if/then/else statement

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:07:26 GMT

To visualize your problem, I added empty lines:

data data1;
set data0;

if income<25000 then ses='Q1';

if income<50000>=25000 then ses='Q2';

if income<80000>=50000 then ses='Q3';

if income<130000>=80000 then ses='Q4';

if income>=130000
then ses='Q5';
else sestatus=' ';

run;

The last IF-THEN-ELSE will code all incomes less than 130000 as missing.

Re: New variable coding problem with if/then/else statement

njgrubic — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:08:47 GMT

Thanks reeza,
I ended up adding in 0 to the "Q1" classificaiton to ensure I was not including 'blank' observations.

if 0 < income < 25000 then ses='Q1';
else if 25000 < income <= 50000 then ses='Q2';
else if 50000 < income <= 80000 then ses='Q3';
else if 80000 < income < 130000 then ses='Q4';
else if income >= 130000 then ses='Q5';
else ses=' ';

Re: New variable coding problem with if/then/else statement

Reeza — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:09:57 GMT

Are you sure all income must be positive?

Re: New variable coding problem with if/then/else statement

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:13:28 GMT

The proper approach to issues like this is to create a value format with ranges, and assign it to the income variable when you use it as CLASS variable in analytic procedures.

Even when you create a new variable, using the format in a PUT statement makes for much cleaner code.