topic Re: Finding records with a specific value for a specific variable in SAS Programming

Finding records with a specific value for a specific variable

Primavera — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 23:23:55 GMT

Hi there,

I am fairly new to SAS and I am using SAS 9.4.

I am working with a data set (hospital inpatient records) that has about one hundred thousand records and about forty variables. Each patient has their unique study ID. Some of the variables are birth-date, admission-date, separation-date, 15 variables for ICD codes of diagnoses of each patient, dead or alive flag, etc. One of the variables is total_length_of_stay and documents for the datasheet say "invalid data will be recorded as -1". My question is how can I see which study IDs have -1 in their total_length_of_stay. Right now the only way I can do this is with use of a flag:

data myhosprecords;

set myhosprecords;

if total_length_of_stay = -1 then invalidlength=1;

else invalidlength=0;

run;

data invalidlengthofstay validlengthofstay;

set myhosprecords;

if invalidlength=1 then output invalidlengthofstay;

else output validlengthofstay;

run;

Is there a simpler way without creating a flag and two other datasheets to find those individuals whose total_length_of_stay = -1?

Thanks,

Re: Finding records with a specific value for a specific variable

Shmuel — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 23:43:42 GMT

Do it in one step:

data invalidlengthofstay validlengthofstay;
 set myhosprecords;
	if total_length_of_stay = -1 
	   then output invalidlengthofstay;
           else output validlengthofstay;
run;

Re: Finding records with a specific value for a specific variable

ChrisNZ — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 03:24:42 GMT

>how can I see which study IDs have -1

How do you want to "see"? Creating a table seems the best way.

data BAD;
   set MYHOSPRECORDS;
   where TOTAL_LENGTH_OF_STAY = -1 ;
 run;

Even better you don't need to create table, you can directly run a report using any procedure, by just adding the same WHERE clause.

Re: Finding records with a specific value for a specific variable

Primavera — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 04:46:00 GMT

Thank you very much. Your suggestion is very neat and efficient.

By seeing I meant seeing the result in the "Results Viewer" window without needing to create the new file "BAD". I looked into proc print but that did not seem like what I wanted.

>Even better you don't need to create table, you can directly run a report using any procedure, by just adding the same WHERE clause.

Could you please explain this a bit further?

Thanks,

Re: Finding records with a specific value for a specific variable

Shmuel — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 05:07:42 GMT

proc print data=myhosprecords(where=(total_length_of_stay = -1)); run;

use the where statement to select required observations.

Re: Finding records with a specific value for a specific variable

ScottBass — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 05:12:58 GMT

Could you please explain this a bit further?

Thanks,

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lestmtsref/63323/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n1xbr9r0s9veq0n137iftzxq4g7e.htm

You're welcome.

"Results Viewer" window

DMS or EG? Both support a where clause.

Re: Finding records with a specific value for a specific variable

Primavera — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 05:29:53 GMT

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.