topic Re: How to assign the same attribute to new variables by copy the existing variable in SAS Programming

How to assign the same attribute to new variables by copy the existing variable

bhanuprakash — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 13:38:07 GMT

I would like to apply same attributes what ever we have for “age” variable to “agenew” variable.

Note: I don't want to create any macro/macro variable for this.

I need to do this in same data set.

For example:

data test;

set sashelp.class;

agenew = put(age,best.);

run ;

Re: How to assign the same attribute to new variables by copy the existing variable

Astounding — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 13:41:40 GMT

If you want the same values, just use:

agenew = age;

If you just want the attributes and not the values, use:

if 5=4 then agenew = age;

This requires that AGENEW is not yet part of the incoming data.

Re: How to assign the same attribute to new variables by copy the existing variable

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 13:43:13 GMT

Not possible in any way. age is numeric, agenew will be character by definition, so there's no way they could have the same attributes.

Re: How to assign the same attribute to new variables by copy the existing variable

bhanuprakash — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 13:47:44 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

Sorry to say that but my question is completely different.

I want to apply the same attributes(length, type, informat and format etc ) what ever we have for “age” variable to “agenew” variable.

Re: How to assign the same attribute to new variables by copy the existing variable

Astounding — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 14:01:11 GMT

So did you actually try my suggestion, or did you just decide that it wouldn't work?

if 5=4 then agenew = age;

Re: How to assign the same attribute to new variables by copy the existing variable

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 14:24:39 GMT

How about this:

data want;
merge
  sashelp.class
  sashelp.class (keep=age rename=(age=agenew))
;
agenew = .; /* add any processing you want to do, but make sure you get results of the correct type */
run;

Re: How to assign the same attribute to new variables by copy the existing variable

andreas_lds — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 14:41:31 GMT

@bhanuprakash wrote:

I would like to apply same attributes what ever we have for “age” variable to “agenew” variable.

Note: I don't want to create any macro/macro variable for this.

I need to do this in same data set.

For example:

data test;

set sashelp.class;

agenew = put(age,best.);

run ;

There are no commands to clone the attributes of a variable, except using the merge suggested by @Kurt_Bremser. The functions open, attrn and attrc can read the attributes of a variable, but there are no functions to change those attributes in a datastep.

Re: How to assign the same attribute to new variables by copy the existing variable

data_null__ — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 19:55:38 GMT

@bhanuprakash wrote:

I would like to apply same attributes what ever we have for “age” variable to “agenew” variable.

Note: I don't want to create any macro/macro variable for this.

I need to do this in same data set.

For example:

data test;

set sashelp.class;

agenew = put(age,best.);

run ;

You can convert numeric to character using PROC TRANSPOSE. For example.

proc transpose data=sashelp.class(obs=3)  out=flip;
   by name;
   var sex--weight;
   copy sex--weight; 
   attrib _all_ label='Example Label';
   format _numeric_ 8.2;
   run;
proc print data=flip(obs=10);
   run;
proc transpose data=flip out=flop(drop=_:) prefix=New_;
   by name;
   copy sex--weight;
   id _name_;
   idlabel _label_;
   var col1;
   run;
proc print;
   run;