topic Do loop for where "i" equals specific values in SAS Programming

Do loop for where "i" equals specific values

jawon — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:20:23 GMT

Dataset FILES_TO_PROCESS looks like this:

FILE_NUM

401

412

439

I'd like to create a macro program with a do loop where "i" takes on those values. My workaround is something like this...

proc sql;

select min(FILE_NUM) into :min_num

from FILES_TO_PROCESS

;

select max(FILE_NUM) into :max_num

from FILES_TO_PROCESS

;

quit;

%macro start_processing;

%do i = &min_num %to &max_num;

%mend;

But of course that will cause the do loop to iterate 39 times, as opposed to just the 3 needed.

Help!

Re: Do loop for where "i" equals specific values

Reeza — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:25:04 GMT

Where is the files to process coming from, a SAS library or a windows or unix directory.

If they all have the same extension you can use a wildcard to process everything in one directory at once...depending on what you're doing of course.

Re: Do loop for where "i" equals specific values

ballardw — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:56:16 GMT

Here's a quick example of taking one field from multiple rows of data file and stepping through them. Look in the log for the output.

%macro dummy;

proc sql noprint;

select make into :cars separated by ' '

from sasuser.carpref

;

quit;

%do i = 1 %to &sqlobs ;

%let name= %scan(&cars,&i);

%put Do something with &name; /* this is where your useful code would go*/

%end;

%mend;

%dummy;

Re: Do loop for where "i" equals specific values

art297 — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 22:05:45 GMT

I would suggest that you provide an example of what you really want to accomplish.

Re: Do loop for where "i" equals specific values

jawon — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 22:40:59 GMT

Thank you ballardw, that works like a charm! Apologies to the others for not providing the full details, but I guess I got lucky that ballardw was on the same wavelength

Re: Do loop for where "i" equals specific values

art297 — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 22:45:01 GMT

Glad to hear that you received an answer that you found useful. However, in the future, the more details you can provide upfront, the more quickly and assuredly others can try to provide a useful response.