topic Re: Data step combining data in SAS Programming

Data step combining data

Agent1592 — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 07:30:55 GMT

I have a basic question:

data test; set temp1 temp2;run;

Temp1 and temp2 are 2 datasets with similar columns. Can somebody explain what this command is doing. Is it a union of the two datasets. Is there a better proc sql alternative to combine temp1 and temp2.

Thanks

Re: Data step combining data

LinusH — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 08:10:23 GMT

Yes it is like a union.
Better depends in your requirements/preferences, but doing it in SQL would get you similar results.

Re: Data step combining data

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 08:10:53 GMT

This is like a union all in sql. But compare your data step code with the necessary sql code:

proc sql;
create table test as
select * from temp1
union all
select * from temp2;
quit;

and you'll see why it's rarely used when the data step is much more concise. Aside from the fact that the data step has capabilities beyond those of sql.