topic Re: Variable name from first observation in SAS Programming

Variable name from first observation

SASdevAnneMarie — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 09:49:36 GMT

Hello Experts,

My data is :

I would like to extract the name from first row and put it as coulumn name. I would like to do that with proc contents and after do the set of two tables. Maybe you know the easiest method ?

Thank you for your help !

Re: Variable name from first observation

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 10:02:59 GMT

DON'T.

These are not valid SAS names.

Re: Variable name from first observation

Ksharp — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 11:11:23 GMT

Better post some REAL data , not just a picture .

Re: Variable name from first observation

Sajid01 — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 12:57:05 GMT

If the first row has names, one should be able to do that in the import processes in most scenarios
Please share how you are importing and atleast the first few rows..

Re: Variable name from first observation

Tom — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 13:13:23 GMT

PROC TRANSPOSE is the way to do this.

Let's say your existing dataset is named HAVE.

proc transpose data=have(obs=1) out=names ;
  var _all_;
run;

This will produce a dataset with two variables _NAME_ with the orignal names and COL1 with the values from the first row.

The values in your photograph look more like labels than names so let's use this information to generate a LABEL statement instead of a RENAME statement.

filename code temp;
data _null_;
   set names end=eof;
   file code ;
   if _n_=1 then put 'label' ;
  put @3 _name_ '=' col1 :$quote. ;
  if eof then put ';' ;
run;

data want;
  set have(firstobs=2);
  %include code / source2;
run;