topic Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query in SAS Programming

Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

GN0001 — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 23:02:03 GMT

Hello team,

Divide two numbers in SAS, which their data type is number and I get .

How to fix this issue?

Regards,

Blue

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

jimbarbour — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 23:07:36 GMT

The dot means "missing." One or both of the variables is not a valid number or the operation is not valid (I think division by zero would result in a missing value if SAS doesn't issue an error).

Can you write the values of the two numbers into the log?

Jim

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

jimbarbour — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 23:14:57 GMT

Yes, division by zero results in a missing value. So either you're doing something invalid or you don't have valid numbers in one or both of the variables.

This code:

DATA	ONE_ROW;
	X	=	1;
	Y	=	0;
	Result	=	X / Y;
	OUTPUT;
	STOP;
RUN;

Yields a missing value as in the below:

Therefore you need to examine the variables and see what's really in them or make sure the divisor isn't zero.

Can you show your data, the record that is causing the problem? Can you post your code?

Jim

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

ballardw — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 13:03:10 GMT

If you attempt to divide by 0 you should get a note in the log about attempted divide by 0.

Or if you have extremely small numbers that get treated functionally as 0.

Or if the range of values between the numerator and denominator where things just don't go well.

If this is the case you might consider the DIVIDE function.

data example;
input x y;
result1= divide(x,y);
datalines;
15 0
15 1E-350
1E300 1E-50
;

The function returns .I (capital i special missing) or .M ._ special missing depending one whether you would get "infinity" such as 1/0 or minus infinity or other cases. The results are missing but you have an indicator of what may have happened, especially in code with lots of calculations. This will also suppress notes to the log about divide by zero, missing values or "overflow" (values too big or small to store).

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

himself — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 02:32:34 GMT

Hi,
Kindly share hos your data looks like.
Thanks

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

andreas_lds — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 06:28:21 GMT

Please read the log, it should explain why you see the . in the results.

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

PaigeMiller — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 10:43:35 GMT

@GN0001 wrote:

Divide two numbers in SAS, which their data type is number and I get .

How to fix this issue?

What is the "fix" that you think would be correct? What two values are being divided?

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

GN0001 — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 21:52:59 GMT

Hello all,

Thanks for all the response.

The reason I was getting dot is that I have renamed the variables in a proc sql, so for those we don't receive any thing if I use that variable in other place, the dot here is simply not the result of dividing by zero.

Respectfully,

Blue Blue

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

GN0001 — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 16:34:41 GMT

Thanks for the responses.

My data is like this:
A_Rate B.Rate
0.36 0.74
Then they come as dot and then these two variables appear at the end of the dataset.

Regards,
Blue Blue

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

PaigeMiller — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 17:04:15 GMT

@GN0001 wrote:
Thanks for the responses.

My data is like this:
A_Rate B.Rate
0.36 0.74
Then they come as dot and then these two variables appear at the end of the dataset.

Regards,
Blue Blue

We've gone long enough in this thread and we still are not sure what you have done. You need to show us your code, and show us a representative portion of the data, including some data that illustrates the problem. Please provide the a portion of the data according to these instructions (as the above little fragment of text that I have quoted isn't the same as showing us your data set following the instructions and is not sufficient for anyone to diagnose anything).

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

Tom — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 17:02:22 GMT

@GN0001 wrote:
Thanks for the responses.

My data is like this:
A_Rate B.Rate
0.36 0.74
Then they come as dot and then these two variables appear at the end of the dataset.

Regards,
Blue Blue

You have not posted an CODE so we cannot tell why you might be getting missing values. (Or perhaps you have even created a character variable with a period in it instead of numeric variable with a missing value.)

Re: Divide two variables and get dot (.) in the result of the query

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 21:34:13 GMT

SHOW.

THE.

LOG.