topic Rename one variable with two variable names in one step in SAS Programming

Rename one variable with two variable names in one step

David_Billa — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 07:38:06 GMT

I want to rename the variable 'Expense' to 'VALUE_LC' and 'VALUE_TC' in one step. When I tried the code below, only the latest rename statement comes into effect.

'VALUE_LC' and 'VALUE_TC' are different variables and it should have the values same as 'Expense' variable. Any help?

data HAVE;
set HAVE_A;
rename Expense=VALUE_LC;
rename Expense=VALUE_TC;
run;

Re: Rename one variable with two variable names in one step

Shmuel — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 08:51:51 GMT

After first rename done, the origin name does not exist;

you can do either:

value_lc = expense;
rename expense = value_tc;

or do:

value_lc = expense;
value_tc = expense;
drop expense;

or any other similar combination.

Re: Rename one variable with two variable names in one step

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 11:40:02 GMT

You misunderstand what RENAME does. Follow the link to the documentation, and you will see that the statement has no effect for the current data step code, only for the output dataset(s). Since the current name is still valid within the data step, you can use the RENAME again, but only the last one will have a lasting effect. And it only changes the name of an existing variable, but it does not create a new one. Therefore you cannot have two new variables for one that exists.