topic Re: Create a new variable that increases by one every third observation in SAS Programming

Create a new variable that increases by one every third observation

Hess — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 15:51:57 GMT

Hi,

I want to create a new variable that increases by 1 every third observation. I'm pasting the simple formula from excel below. Is there a way to replicate this in SAS, so that it will create several million rows in this fashion?

Thank you

Re: Create a new variable that increases by one every third observation

PaigeMiller — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 16:10:07 GMT

data want;
    set have;
    newvariable = ceil(_n_/3);
run;

The CEIL() function rounds the value inside the parenthesis up to the next integer, so rows 1 2 and 3 will round up to a 1; and so on.

Advice ... stop thinking about how to do it in Excel, as this likely will not help in SAS. I know this is difficult to do if you are a beginner in SAS, but the advice will help you in the long run.

Re: Create a new variable that increases by one every third observation

PeterClemmensen — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 15:59:05 GMT

@Hess Hi and welcome to the SAS Community 🙂

Are you looking for something like this?

data want;
   do _N_=1 to 10;
      if mod(_N_, 3)=1 then a+1;
      output;
   end;
run;

Re: Create a new variable that increases by one every third observation

Hess — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 16:04:11 GMT

thank you!