topic Re: how to put a senquence of variables in by statement? in SAS Programming

how to put a senquence of variables in by statement?

canvaschen — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 02:02:59 GMT

Hi there,

I have several variables called V1 V2 ... Vn, how can I put this sequence in by statement to make the sample group by every variable in this sequence?

Just like this:

proc ttest data=test3;
by V1 V2 ... Vn;
var ret;
run;

The n is one of my macro variables, and sometimes I need to change the value of n.

Re: how to put a senquence of variables in by statement?

Tom — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 02:42:50 GMT

First thing is figure out the SAS code you want.

If your variables are really named V1, V2, V3, V4 and V5 then the BY statement is simply:

by v1-v5 ;

Now if the want to use a macro variable to help generate that statement you could put 5 into the macro variable.

%let n=5;

Then use it to create the BY statement:

by v1-v&n;

Re: how to put a senquence of variables in by statement?

canvaschen — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 03:44:46 GMT

Thanks, Tom.

It works perfectly!

Re: how to put a senquence of variables in by statement?

PhilC — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 19:57:49 GMT

Tom always gets the solves.

If anyone else is interested and find this, this alternative way is available. If all one wishes to use all variables in the data set that start with same prefix ( say v in this case) then

/*no let statement */
proc ttest data=test3;
  by V: ; /*colon operator*/
  var ret;
run;