topic If there is eof to get end of file, is there an equivalent "start" option to get the first row? in SAS Programming

If there is eof to get end of file, is there an equivalent "start" option to get the first row?

sustagens — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 08:45:18 GMT

I know nobs can be used but just wondering if there also exists a start option since there is an "end" one.

Re: If there is eof to get end of file, is there an equivalent "start" option to get the f

gamotte — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 09:22:36 GMT

Hello,

In a data step, a variable _N_ is automatically created and contains the currently processed row number. So you can just test :
if _N_=1 then ...

Re: If there is eof to get end of file, is there an equivalent "start" option to get the f

Kurt_Bremser — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 09:35:27 GMT

Actually, _N_ contains the number of the current data step iteration. In most cases, since you only execute a set or merge statement once per iteration, this will correspond to the row number, but if you execute these statements more than once, you will get another result.

Compare this:

data test1;
set sashelp.class;
count = _N_;
run;

with this:

data test2;
do until (end_of_file);
  set sashelp.class end=end_of_file;
  count = _N_;
  output;
end;
run;