topic Re: Create bins of specified width in SAS Programming

Create bins of specified width

ly2105 — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 14:37:54 GMT

Hello,

I would like to create a new variable YBIN based on my continuous variable Y for use in a regression model. Y is a continuous variable that ranges from 21 to 266 with units of 1 (eg, possible values can be 21, 22, 45, 66, 109... etc) . For interpretation, I would like to bin this variable into lengths of 10 such that the new variable YBIN is 1=20-30, 2=31-40, 3=41-50, 4=51-60... and so on, up to 270. A value of 266 would fall into the bin of 261-270.

I've tried proc rank and proc hpbin, but it doesn't seem like either allows you to select the width of your bin (only the number of total bins).

I've also looked at this but don't fully understand the do loop. https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/binning-a-continuous-variable-for-further-analysis/m-p/564608#M158393

Thanks!

Re: Create bins of specified width

PaigeMiller — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 15:00:43 GMT

ybin = floor((y-1)/10) - 1;

Re: Create bins of specified width

ly2105 — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 15:54:53 GMT

Thanks- what is the purpose of subtracting 1?

Re: Create bins of specified width

PaigeMiller — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 16:47:53 GMT

In your original statement of the problem, you said you wanted

1=20-30, 2=31-40, 3=41-50, 4=51-60

If you don't subtract 1, you don't get these values. Although, from a purely practical point of view, subtracting 1 shouldn't affect the regression you are going to do, and so subtracting 1 could be omitted without any negative effects.