topic Re: Recoding categorical variable in SAS Programming

Recoding categorical variable

Job04 — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 20:34:29 GMT

I have categorical variable ( string variable) with 3 levels: one, two and three. I would like to recode this variable to have these levels as 1, 2 and 3. Thank you

Re: Recoding categorical variable

ballardw — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 21:04:45 GMT

How do you want to use the variable? Are you wanting a numeric value or are you asking for IF/Then/Else type code to reassign values of the existing variable?

I ask because a SAS Format is a typical way to change displayed values without changing data which is sometimes more flexible and quicker than actually changing values. But display order is not always as expected depending on the procedures used.

Re: Recoding categorical variable

Job04 — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 21:11:31 GMT

Variable will be used in certain model as predictor. Actually I run the model using the original variable and I got weird results. So I want to recode the variable either by creating new variable or just replacing it.

Re: Recoding categorical variable

ballardw — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 21:33:29 GMT

You might be better showing the code for the model and the results that you think are weird, describing in what way they are "weird".

I have a hard time thinking of a true categorical variable that changing the coding in a one-to-one fashion would affect the model.

Re: Recoding categorical variable

PaigeMiller — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 21:48:47 GMT

Recoding your strings to 1 2 3 does not change the model. It is a waste of time in modeling.