topic Re: Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names in SAS Programming

Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names

jovane0700 — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 21:04:09 GMT

So I have a .sas7bdat file. I have successfully opened it by using lib name and

data new ;
set roster.employee_roster ;
run;

However I am asked to print a table with only peoples last names that start with Z or Y. Im having trouble figuring this out since the names are stored as full names in one column. any suggestions?

Re: Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names

PeterClemmensen — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 20:59:46 GMT

If the assignment is to only print records with first names starting with Z or X, it shouldn't matter if the name is stored as a full name?

Simply do something like this

proc print data=sashelp.class;
   where substr(name, 1, 1)="A";
run;

Re: Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names

jovane0700 — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 21:03:14 GMT

Sorry I rushed to type it. Its asking for LASTNAMES that start with Z or Y. But I only have the column of FULLNAMES

Re: Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names

Reeza — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 21:07:28 GMT

1. Split names to isolate last name. See SCAN() and/or SUBSTR()
2. Use SUBSTR() to find the first character of name from #1
3. Add an IF statement to filter the records out.

Re: Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names

mdavidson — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 21:11:05 GMT

data work.a;
name="Joe Zions";
output;
name="Joe Smith";
output;
name="Joe Yuck";
output;
run;

data work.b;
set work.a;
where substr(upcase(scan(name,2," ")),1,1) in ('Z','Y');
run;

Re: Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names

jovane0700 — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 21:08:46 GMT

Do i put these steps in the data step or the proc step? sorry I'm very new to this

Re: Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names

jovane0700 — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 21:26:07 GMT

This is for one column of data. What if I'm working with multiple columns such as a .sas7bdat file?

file name: employee_roster.sas7bdat

Re: Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names

ballardw — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 23:13:41 GMT

@jovane0700 wrote:

This is for one column of data. What if I'm working with multiple columns such as a .sas7bdat file?

file name: employee_roster.sas7bdat

The technique @mdavidson shows is intended to subset a data set on the values as specified (under some assumptions you have not addressed such as order of first and last name in the name field and some other obnoxious name related stuff). You would use your data set in the place of the work.a on the set statement in the second data step in the example and the work.b set is the one you would print from. His work.a data set is shown to have something concrete to demonstrate one approach. If your name field looks different than shown in work.a then you need to provide examples.

Re: Basic SAS: printing out a table based on last names

Astounding — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 02:23:53 GMT

Here's a good starting point It assumes (as you originally stated) that the full name is stored in a single variable:

proc print data=roster.employee_roster;

where scan(full_name, -1) in : ("Y", "Z");

run;

For this to work, you absolutely must not remove the colon after IN.