topic Re: Splitting a numerical variable in SAS Programming

Splitting a numerical variable

catch18 — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 05:55:49 GMT

Hi,

I have a numerical variable BA_car which has 40 observations. The observations are all in decimals e.g. BA_car = 39.32. I want to split the numbers 39.32 under two new variable names (months, weeks) so that the new variable months = 39 and weeks =32. I was trying my code below for months first but it did not work. Any suggestions?

data cars;

set Theresa.cars;

if BA_car = . then months = .;

else if BA_car = months.weeks then months = months;

run;

Thanks.

Re: Splitting a numerical variable

andreas_lds — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:04:12 GMT

This is a very interesting way to store months and weeks ...

You have to convert the number to string, then use scan function with . as separator to extract the parts left and right of the dot.

Re: Splitting a numerical variable

andreas_lds — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:07:30 GMT

You don't have to convert the number to a string, you could use some basic operations:

month = int(BA_Car);
week = int((BA_Car - month) * 100);

Re: Splitting a numerical variable

PeterClemmensen — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:14:42 GMT

@andreas_lds, I like the idea of not converting here, but what if BA_car=39.3 ?

Re: Splitting a numerical variable

andreas_lds — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:16:56 GMT

@PeterClemmensen wrote:

@andreas_lds, I like the idea of not converting here, but what if BA_car=39.3 ?

Well ... the result will be wrong if the "basic-ops" solution is used ... i really should have a cup of coffee before posting 😉

Re: Splitting a numerical variable

SASKiwi — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:17:16 GMT

Something like this?

data cars;
set Theresa.cars;
if BA_car = . then months = .;
else do;
  months = int(BA_car);
  weeks = mod(BA_car, 1) * 100;
end;
run;

Re: Splitting a numerical variable

catch18 — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:27:23 GMT

Many thanks andreas_ids.

Re: Splitting a numerical variable

catch18 — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:27:47 GMT

Thank you.

Re: Splitting a numerical variable

SASKiwi — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 06:33:52 GMT

This might be better for the 39.3 case:

data _null_;
BA_car = 39.3;
  months = int(BA_car);
  weeks = mod(BA_car, 1);
  if mod(weeks * 100, 10) = 0 then weeks = weeks * 10;
  else weeks = weeks * 100;
  put _all_;
 run;

Re: Splitting a numerical variable

ballardw — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 15:38:03 GMT

@catch18 wrote:

Hi,

I have a numerical variable BA_car which has 40 observations. The observations are all in decimals e.g. BA_car = 39.32. I want to split the numbers 39.32 under two new variable names (months, weeks) so that the new variable months = 39 and weeks =32. I was trying my code below for months first but it did not work. Any suggestions?

data cars;

set Theresa.cars;

if BA_car = . then months = .;

else if BA_car = months.weeks then months = months;

run;

Thanks.

Don't read such variables as numeric as .3 and .31 differ buy more than ".01" if I understand you description. 39.3 would seem to be "3 weeks". Or is your data going to have 3 weeks as .03? You have provided an incomplete description of your values.

Read as character an split using Input and Scan functions.