topic Re: Reference to a numeric variable name in SAS Programming

How to reference to a numeric variable name

webart999ARM — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:44:29 GMT

Hello folks.

I faced some strange thing today which I have never seen before.
After running a reference code that I have to use, I find out that some variables have numeric variable names (i.e. 1, 2, 3).

I want to make some changes to them but I have no idea how to refer them.

Task needs to be accomplished - Convert values in variables 1, 2, and 3 from numeric to char.

Thank you in advance.

Kind Regards

Artur

Re: Reference to a numeric variable name

maguiremq — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:23:00 GMT

That's a name literal, and it isn't a valid name. I'm assuming you have

options validvarname = any;

specified somewhere.

You have to refer to it like this:

"1"n

options validvarname = any;
data want;
input '1'n;
datalines;
11
11
.
11
11
;
run;

proc means data = want;
	var '1'n;
run;

Probably a good idea to rename those to avoid the hassle of name literals.

Re: Reference to a numeric variable name

Tom — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:23:05 GMT

Someone must have changed your VALIDVARNAME option setting to ANY to allow it to create names like that.

To reference those non-standard names in SAS code you need to use name literals. Add quotes and the letter N to the name.

proc freq;
  tables  '1'n  "2"N ;
run;

Re: Reference to a numeric variable name

webart999ARM — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:33:04 GMT

Thank you for your response @maguiremq and @Tom , but it doesn't work that way.
I tried to perform three different actions with that variable with a numeric name, but had no success.

Re: Reference to a numeric variable name

Reeza — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:46:43 GMT

Run a proc contents on the input data set and show that output please.

Or to fix the overall issue:

Add this line to your AUTOEXEC : options validvarname=v7;
Restart your SAS session
Reimport your data and SAS will provide usable names.

Re: Reference to a numeric variable name

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:50:34 GMT

Most likely you have leading blanks also, which would cause the same effect:

options validvarname=any;

data have;
input " 1"n;
datalines;
1
;

data want;
set have;
one = "1"n;
run;

proc sql noprint;
select nliteral(name) into :names separated by " " from dictionary.columns
where libname = "WORK" and memname = "HAVE";
quit;

%put &names.;

The SQL will display the real names of the variables, which you can then use in further code to rename them.

Re: Reference to a numeric variable name

webart999ARM — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:52:05 GMT

Thank you @Reeza

Added 'options validvarname=v7;' at the top of my program.

Now I have _1, _2, and _3 variables instead of 1, 2, and 3.

Appreciate all your responses guys.

Have a good rest of your day.

Regards

Artur

Re: Reference to a numeric variable name

webart999ARM — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 15:54:27 GMT

Interesting approach.

I will definitely try it.

Thank you 🙂

Re: Reference to a numeric variable name

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:06:28 GMT

Since you import the data yourself, you can fix it there, which I also recommend. My approach is for situations where you receive a SAS dataset with such (IMO stupid) names and have to proceed from there.