topic Re: pulling all the distinct values from a data set into a macro variable then using them. in SAS Programming

pulling all the distinct values from a data set into a macro variable then using them.

HitmonTran — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 01:16:44 GMT

I want to pull all distinct values from variable "SITEID" and then using them in a macro without typing all 118 SITEID values into a proc step below:

proc sort data=x;
by subject;
where siteid= "&siteid";
run;

Re: pulling all the distinct values from a data set into a macro variable then using them.

ballardw — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 01:32:15 GMT

Did you READ the response in https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/how-to-NOT-manually-type-all-50-values-in-a-macro/m-p/748582

I show you exactly how to do that

proc sql noprint;
   select distinct origin into :originlist separated by ' '
   from sashelp.cars
   ;
quit;

for one.

and how to use the list.

In a couple of different places.

Re: pulling all the distinct values from a data set into a macro variable then using them.

andreas_lds — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 04:38:11 GMT

Storing data in macro-variable is hardly necessary at all, so you may want to explain what you are trying to achieve. The step you showed needs at least a tweak setting the name of the dataset created according to the value of &siteId. But here the trouble starts: All values of SiteID must valid sas-names. So if you are not 100% sure that they won't invalidate the datasets name, you have to pre-process the values, taking care of not creating duplicates when replacing bad chars. This is much work. compared to by-group processing, which is available in nearly all procs.