topic Re: calling on a column that breaks SAS rules in SAS Programming

calling on a column that breaks SAS rules

axescot78 — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:10:19 GMT

I have a dataset that I want to subset by column name. One of the columns I am interested in keeping is named 'MOD'. SAS returns an error when I call on this column; probably because it violates this rule:

SAS reserves a few names for automatic variables and variable lists, SAS data sets, and librefs.

How can I call on this column? I have to use 'keep' rather than 'drop' because there are 78 columns in this dataset.

Re: calling on a column that breaks SAS rules

PaigeMiller — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:58:26 GMT

Show us the log of this step, complete, unedited, with nothing chopped out, and in the sequence that it appears in the log. Please click on the </> icon and paste the log as text into the window that appears. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.

Re: calling on a column that breaks SAS rules

Tom — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 01:23:33 GMT

There are very few (if any) names that SAS will not allow as a variable name. MOD is definitely a valid variable name.

Example:

123  data test;
124    do mod=1 to 5; output; end;
125  run;

NOTE: The data set WORK.TEST has 5 observations and 1 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.09 seconds
      cpu time            0.03 seconds


126  proc print data=test;
127    where mod=3;
128  run;

NOTE: There were 1 observations read from the data set WORK.TEST.
      WHERE mod=3;
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
      real time           0.12 seconds
      cpu time            0.00 seconds

Re: calling on a column that breaks SAS rules

axescot78 — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 01:56:09 GMT

Thanks Tom. Looking at it again, the error is related to the format:

ERROR: The format MOD was not found or could not be loaded.

Looking at the proc contents, the column is named MOD and the format is MOD. Must be a custom format!

Re: calling on a column that breaks SAS rules

Tom — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 04:37:51 GMT

To use the data without access to the format set the option NOFMTERR.

Re: calling on a column that breaks SAS rules

ballardw — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 15:46:52 GMT

@axescot78 wrote:

Thanks Tom. Looking at it again, the error is related to the format:

ERROR: The format MOD was not found or could not be loaded.

Looking at the proc contents, the column is named MOD and the format is MOD. Must be a custom format!

You can change the behavior of missing formats as errors by setting:

Options nofmterr;

Or create a temporary format that does nothing:

Proc format;

value mod;

run;

would find a format but treat the values as the BEST format.

Or find the definition for the MOD format and run it in your session.