topic Re: How to output Proc Means output to a macro variable in SAS Programming

How to output Proc Means output to a macro variable

deleted_user — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:51:55 GMT

I want to generate the median of a variable, and I understand that PROC SQL is only capable of calc median horizontally and not vertically. Now my question is, if I use proc means, is there a way to output the median to a macro variable? I'm hoping to find a more code-efficient way instead of having to write another datastep to call symput to a macro variable.

my current code:
proc means data=tmp_aaa noprint;
var pvol;
output out=tmp_median_aaa median=tmp_median_aaa;
;
run;

data tmp_median_aaa;
set tmp_median_aaa;
call symput('tmp_median_aaa', tmp_median_aaa);
run;

Re: How to output Proc Means output to a macro variable

DanielSantos — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:51:04 GMT

Hello.

From my knowledge this is the most efficient way of doing this.

You could use the SELECT INTO: feature of PROC SQL to populate a macro var after doing the necessary aggregation. But as you already pointed out, there is no support for MEDIAN(X) summary functions (vertically), just the common datastep MEDIAN function (horizontally).

Cheers from Portugal.

Daniel Santos @ www.cgd.pt.

Re: How to output Proc Means output to a macro variable

Paige — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:58:29 GMT

I don't think there is a more "code efficient" way than using call symput. This is the way I do it.

Re: How to output Proc Means output to a macro variable

deleted_user — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:17:41 GMT

I agree with the other posters. A very (very) slight improvement would be to avoid outputting the median data set again, as in:

data _null_;
set tmp_median_aaa;
call symputx('tmp_median_aaa', tmp_median_aaa);
run;