topic Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator. in SAS Programming

What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

PhilC — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:49:57 GMT

Once I asked myself this, I just can't get the question out of my head. The OF symbol (syntax) is not motivated by the English preposition "of", is it?

SAS Help Center: The OF Operator with Functions and Variable Lists

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

Tom — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:49:47 GMT

Are you trying to get into the minds of the SAS development team?

Makes sense to me. MAX(of var1-var10) means "take the max of var1 thru var10".

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

PaigeMiller — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:51:44 GMT

Are you referring to using OF in many functions such as

y=mean(of x1-x5);

???

If so, then this indicates that the function (in this case the MEAN function) is to use a variable list x1-x5.

Or are you asking about other uses? If so, please specify where in SAS you would use this OF

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

PhilC — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:53:29 GMT

@Tom wrote:

MAX(of var1-var10) means "take the max of var1 thru var10".

yeah, but then there is

CALL MISSING(of var1-var10);

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

PhilC — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:55:17 GMT

@Tom wrote:

Are you trying to get into the minds of the SAS development team?

ha ha, yes I am.

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

WarrenKuhfeld — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 13:59:10 GMT

At one time, there was no OF operator. In those bad-old-days, the statement

mean = mean(x1-x100);

computed the mean of x1 minus x100, which was not what anyone would ever likely want.
So SAS added OF to take the mean (or whatever function) *of* a list, suppressing the normal subtraction. More generally, OF can be used with any list. So, yes, the english word "of" makes sense: function of a list of variables.

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

jimbarbour — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 15:34:49 GMT

@PhilC wrote:

CALL MISSING(of var1-var10);

This is sort of like saying:

Dear SAS, of this list of variables, var1 through var10, please set them to missing.

I would agree that

MAX(of Var1 - Var10);

is easier to "translate" into English, but I think the paradigm still holds even for MISSING.

The general rule for "translating" into English would be:

of these variables (a list of vars), do this (perform the specified function)

In the case of MISSING:

Of these variables, Var1 - Var10, set them to missing.

In short: "of these, do this".

I think this is a reasonable way of understanding the syntax.

Jim

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

PhilC — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 13:11:08 GMT

Ok I get it, thanks for your submissions. Sadly I'm too unsatisfied to press "Accept as Solution", so I'm passing out likes.

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

Tom — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 13:24:53 GMT

@PhilC wrote:

Ok I get it, thanks for your submissions. Sadly I'm too unsatisfied to press "Accept as Solution", so I'm passing out likes.

That because your original goal is a fool's errand .

Software designers create syntax that re-use normal words. But the meaning of the syntax is what the computer language supports, not the normal conversational meaning of that word.

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

PhilC — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 14:37:49 GMT

It's a good point to bring up about the re-using of pre-existing reserved words. That dawned on me when a day after the post.

---

"Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?" - George Lucas

Re: What does OF mean?; referring to the OF operator.

jimbarbour — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 17:39:28 GMT

The Cambridge Dictionary lists one of the uses of "of" as "relating to". In this sense, the developers used the word well. They used "of" to relate a function to a grouping of variables.

However, to @Tom's point, if we discuss this long enough, the Dictionary of Internet Slang's definition of "of" may soon apply to all of us. 😉

What does "of" mean in slang?

The Meaning of OF:
OF means "Old Fart"