topic Re: Retain every other obs with no by group in SAS Programming

Retain every other obs with no by group

sveinola_gundhus_tv2_no — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 21:47:42 GMT

I have a dataset where I need to combine values from every other obs and I have no by group.

Your advice is much obliged.

DATA Have;
    input Subject $ 1-16 Status $ 17-30 ;
    cards;
some info           Success
some other innfo
some info           Success
new info
RUN;

DATA Want;
    input Subject $ 1-16 Status $ 17-30 NewVar $ 31-50;
    cards;
some info           Success   some other innfo
some info           Success   new info
RUN;

Thank you

Re: Retain every other obs with no by group

Astounding — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 21:53:05 GMT

The INPUT statement allows you to move on to the next line of data. For example, either of these would be possible:

input Subject $ 1-16 Status $ 17-30 / NewVar $ 1-20;

input Subject $ 1-16 Status$ 17-30 / NewVar $ 31-50;

The slash indicates that the INPUT statement should move to the next line. You just have to complete the INPUT statement so that SAS knows where to find NewVar on the second line.

Good luck.

Re: Retain every other obs with no by group

sveinola_gundhus_tv2_no — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 22:44:49 GMT

Thank you for the suggestion. I will try to work on this.

My problem was unfortunately not very well articulated.

The data Have is a large dataset and the Want is what I was thinking is possible to produce in a datastep using some kind of retain?

I have not done much retain code and struggle with this challenge.

Advice on such a datastep with a retain statement (maybe do loops?) code is also much obliged

Re: Retain every other obs with no by group

Reeza — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 22:53:34 GMT

Merge the data with itself, renaming the variable and starting from the second observation.

Also, drop every other record, or keep every other record depending on how you look at it.

data want;
merge have 
      have (keep=subject rename=subject=newvar firstobs=2);
if mod(_n_, 2) = 1;
run;

Re: Retain every other obs with no by group

Astounding — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 23:37:49 GMT

We might have to go back and re-define the starting point.

Is your large data set already a SAS data set, or is it still text?

If it's a SAS data set, what does it look like?

Is it more important to use RETAIN, vs. finding a simple solution that works?

Re: Retain every other obs with no by group

sveinola_gundhus_tv2_no — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 12:01:15 GMT

I found that the merge with itself works fine with this tuning

data want;
merge have (keep=Subject Status Date)
have (keep=Subject rename=subject=newvar firstobs=2);
if mod(_n_, 2) = 1;
run;

If retain is possible I would love to learn howto..

It is a SAS Dataset and looks like this:

Subject	Status	Date
Feilkode 6013	Success	10Feb2016 18:21:40
Result: Created reply #8974223 to ticket #ASV-223434
Får feilmelding 3141	Success	10Feb2016 16:36:06
Result: Created reply #1215534 to ticket #ORI-985743
Feilmelding Lag - Lag borte06.02.2016	Success	10Feb2016 14:17:17
Result: Created reply #12345665to ticket #YXM-95543553
Får feilmelding 3141	Success	09Feb2016 20:45:20
Result: Created reply #459345783to ticket #ORI-31254345

The subject starting with Result: should be a new variable in the above line.

Retain where Status is missing is what I have tried.

Thank you for the efforts

Re: Retain every other obs with no by group

Astounding — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 12:09:56 GMT

If you must use RETAIN, here is a starting point:

data want;

infile rawdata;

if mod(_n_, 1) then input Subject $ 1-16 Status $ 17-30;

else do;

input NewVar $ 1-20;

output;

end;

run;

You will need to add a RETAIN statement to get this to work properly.

Re: Retain every other obs with no by group

sveinola_gundhus_tv2_no — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 21:19:39 GMT

Thank you all for your input.

My preferred solution is

data want;
merge have (keep=Subject Status Date)
have (keep=Subject rename=subject=newvar firstobs=2);
if mod(_n_, 2) = 1;
run;

Im not investigating the retain track..

Thank you