topic Re: deleting row with missing observation in SAS Programming

deleting row with missing observation

wschnell1 — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 03:11:10 GMT

Hi,

I have a large number of columns and rows.

I want to delete a row of data if one specific variable is missing (FIRMID) which is a numerical variable

I tried the following but it didn't seem to work

data want;

set have;

if FIRMID = . then delete;

run;

Any help appreciated.

Re: deleting row with missing observation

Jagadishkatam — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 03:14:26 GMT

ideally it should work, the code of yours is fine.

Please try

data want;

set have;

where firmid ne . ;

run;

Thanks,

Jagadish

Re: deleting row with missing observation

Patrick — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 03:19:26 GMT

Your code looks fine to me. Is FIRMID character or numeric?

You could try instead:

data want;

set have;

if missing(FIRMID) then delete;

run;

Re: deleting row with missing observation

Astounding — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 03:22:54 GMT

While few people use them, there are special missing values that are different from the usual numeric missing value. Technically, this would be safer:

data want;

set have;

if firmid <= .Z then delete;

run;

Notice there is a . before the Z (.Z, not just Z).

It's not likely that this is what is happening here, but it is really the only way to explain an otherwise simple program.

Re: deleting row with missing observation

Haikuo — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 03:33:04 GMT

Astounding beats me, yes, the safest way to rule missing value is to do something as suggested: missing() function:

data test;

input FIRMID;

cards;

;

DATA MISS1;

SET TEST;

if FIRMID = . then delete;

run;

DATA MISS2;

SET TEST;

IF MISSING(FIRMID) THEN DELETE;

RUN;

PROC PRINT DATA=MISS1;RUN;

Obs FIRMID

1 1

2 2

3 _

4 A

5 B

6 Z

PROC PRINT DATA=MISS2;RUN;

Obs FIRMID

1 1

2 2

Haikuo