topic Re: Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step in SAS Programming

Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step

deleted_user — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:45:02 GMT

In Stata, if I want to drop variables before merging that all have an "h1" root, I would type:

drop h1*

Stata drops all variables beginning with "h1", no matter what order they are in.

In SAS, I try:

data temp (drop=h1*);

SAS does not recognize the wildcard. What is the proper way to do this?

Thanks

Paul

Re: Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step

sbb — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:04:16 GMT

Use the colon character with SAS to specify a variable root / prefix.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

Re: Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step

deleted_user — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:31:46 GMT

Thanks. Is there an example of this in the documentation somewhere?

P

Re: Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step

LinusH — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:09:13 GMT

(drop=h1:)

/Linus

Re: Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step

deleted_user — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:19:47 GMT

Thanks. The only things I could find about wildcards in the documentation referred to "*" and "%".

P

Re: Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step

deleted_user — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:19:10 GMT

Hi,

it looks very easy, but...

Is there any way to drop the variables ENDING with some pattern? (Or more: variables that contain some pattern).

I've tried with

DROP=:h1

but it doesn't work. I could manage that using PROC CONTENTS and macrovariables, but I hope to find some more clear solution. Is there any?

Thanks
Jaroslav

Re: Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step

LinusH — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:29:13 GMT

There is no direct support for this in data step syntax (to my knowledge). But it doesn't have to be complicated. Try using sql with dictionary.columns to create a variable list using INTO and SEPARATED BY. See an example from this SUGI paper:

http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi30/057-30.pdf

Regards,
Linus

Re: Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step

Patrick — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:08:08 GMT

Have a look at this thread. It might give you an idea how to query the dictionary table and find vars with a certain pattern.
HTH
Patrick

Ooops... Somehow the link got "lost": http://support.sas.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=14275㟃 Message was edited by: Patrick

Re: Dropping variables with wildcard in Data Step

darrylovia — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:31:04 GMT

In the online documentation go to SAS Variables; SAS Variable Lists