topic Re: sas reference to a numeric variable name in SAS Programming

sas reference to a numeric variable name

Sasadomo — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 23:48:42 GMT

I was using the following lines:

proc transpose data =Weighted1 out =Weighted2
(rename = ( '1'n =ret_top '2'n=ret_bot) drop = _label_ );
...

where I wanted to rename variable named "1" and named "2" in Weighted1 to "ret_tap" and "ret_bot" but SAS shows error for above line 2. How would Reference to such a variable?

Re: sas reference to a numeric variable name

AndrewHowell — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:56:52 GMT

To help us to help you, are you able to supply (sample) data & the actual log?

Re: sas reference to a numeric variable name

Sasadomo — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 01:27:09 GMT

Thank you for you reply

I want Weighted2 as this:

And in weighted1 "1" "2" are the variable name

Attached is the log

Re: sas reference to a numeric variable name

Reeza — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 02:14:29 GMT

You don't show us what you're starting with, so it's still not clear.

However, when SAS Transposes variables it automatically names them (usually col1, col2 etc), and I strongly suspect the names are not 1 or 2, so you first need to find the output names. I would do so by running the PROC TRANSPOSE, seeing the output data set and then renaming the variables accordingly. You probably want to run PROC CONTENTS to get the names. In general, I prefer to turn off the VALIDVARNAME=ANY option so I don't get names like '1'n in the first place.

@Sasadomo wrote:

I want Weighted2 as this:

Re: sas reference to a numeric variable name

Sasadomo — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 03:41:13 GMT

Thank you for your response, do I apply VALIDVARNAME=ANY option in the proc Transposes command?

Re: sas reference to a numeric variable name

Reeza — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 03:58:26 GMT

No, it's a SAS option.

This is what I recommend:

options validvarname=V7;

It means SAS will default to valid SAS names, by replacing spaces with _ and adding _ before variables with a 1 or 2.

@Sasadomo wrote:

Thank you for your response, do I apply VALIDVARNAME=ANY option in the proc Transposes command?

Re: sas reference to a numeric variable name

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 06:20:04 GMT

Maxim 3: Know your data.

Run the proc transpose without the rename, inspect the variable names in weighted2, and then rewrite the rename accordingly.