topic Re: XML to SAS dataset not concatenating repeating elements in SAS Programming

XML to SAS dataset not concatenating repeating elements

Jasdeep_Kochhar — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 18:02:57 GMT

I have an XML file in the following structure:

<root>

<a>

<b>

<c>

<d>

<e>

<f>

<g> value1 </g>

</f>

<f>

<g> value2 </g>

</f>

</e>

</d>

</c>

</b>

</a>

<a>

<b>

<c>

<d>

<e>

<f>

<g> value3 </g>

</f>

<f>

<g> value4 </g>

</f>

</e>

</d>

</c>

</b>

</a>

</root>

Since the element "g" is repeating within the following observation boundary/table-path:

/root/a,

when I set the column-path in my XML map equal to:

/root/a/b/c/d/e/f/g,

I expect (based on this webpage) the value of column g for the first observation to equal the concatenation value1value2. However, the first observation has value of column g equal to value1, which also happens if I set the table-path/observation boundary equal to any of:

/root/a, /root/a/b, ..., /root/a/b/.../e.

If I set the observation boundary/table-path in my XML map to:

/root/a/b/.../e/f

I get value1 and value2 in separate observations/rows, as expected.

Does anyone know how I can get the concatenation I want to work?

Re: XML to SAS dataset not concatenating repeating elements

ballardw — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 19:25:22 GMT

Can you indicate which lines in the referenced link lead to this expectation?

If the "values" are numeric then that would be a serious abuse of the data. You can't "concatenate" numerics if the field is supposed to be numeric.

You will have to go with the second approach and then write code to concatenate the values after it is in a data set. There are numerous requests and responses on how to do that on this forum.

Re: XML to SAS dataset not concatenating repeating elements

Jasdeep_Kochhar — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 19:37:41 GMT

Hi @ballardw,

Thanks for your reply. The third paragraph states:

"If you do not identify the appropriate observation boundary, the result could be a concatenated data string instead of separate observations."

Although I realise now that this says it the result could be a concatenated data string, but it does not say that this will definitely happen.

In regards to using the second approach, I'm okay to do this using retained variables after the data has been set.

Thanks for all your help.