topic Re: Issue with arrays for creating new variables in SAS Programming

Issue with arrays for creating new variables

Mahip — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 20:29:14 GMT

I have a 12-characters variable sales in the form of, say, "YYYNNNYNYYYN". I am using array to create 12 new variables with one character each. When I use array with substring, I am getting not only 12 variables but also 12 new rows for each observation. So, if I had 50 observations, I am now getting 12*50=600 observations, along with the 12 newly created variables. I am not able to figure out why this is happening.

The syntax I am using is:

array x[12] month1-month12;

do i=1 to 12;

x[i]=substr(sales, i, 1);

output;

end;

drop i;

run;

Thank you!

Re: Issue with arrays for creating new variables

Reeza — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 20:43:18 GMT

array x[12] month1-month12;
do i=1 to 12;
     x[i]=substr(sales, i, 1);
     output;
end; 
drop i;
run;

OUTPUT is within the loop. Move it to outside of the loop, so it outputs at the END of the process. Now it outputs every record*month so you get N*12 records in total. FYI- you can use the CHAR or Substr() to loop this, I find the CHAR function more useful.

Another option - if you read this file from a CSV or other dataset you may be able to modify the input to read all the records initially.

Re: Issue with arrays for creating new variables

Astounding — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 20:43:36 GMT

Get rid of the OUTPUT statement to get rid of the extra observations.

Also note, you may be creating your new variables as numeric instead of character. If the new variables are not already defined earlier in your program, change the array statement:

array x[12] $ 1 month1-month12;

Re: Issue with arrays for creating new variables

Haikuo — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 14:59:50 GMT

Ok, this is just for fun :),

data test;
sales='YYYNNNYNYYYN';
array x[12] $ 1 month1-month12;
call pokelong(sales,addrlong(x(1)),dim(x));
run;

Re: Issue with arrays for creating new variables

Peter_C — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 15:34:10 GMT

Reads like P. Dorfman code 🙂

Re: Issue with arrays for creating new variables

Haikuo — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 15:37:25 GMT

Indeed!

Re: Issue with arrays for creating new variables

Mahip — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 16:06:41 GMT

Thank you everyone for your comments! They were very helpful.