Merge generates 0 observations

xyxu — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 00:58:40 GMT

Hi,

It is quite weired but I indeed encountered this.

I tried to merge two datasets and I was pretty sure they are many same values for all "by" variables. However, I got 0 oberservations when I specify "if a and b". Why does it happen?

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Hi all,

Thanks for replying. Now I am pretty sure the problem is from importing CSV data. Could anyone make a code to properly import the data into SAS? You might download "2012 Q1" from the following link:

https://www.sec.gov/opa/data/market-structure/market-structure-data-security-and-exchange.html

To be specific, variables "date" should be a yymmdd8. variable, "Security" and "ticker" should be characters, and the rest should be all numerics. I tried different ways, but all give me either missing values, or log ouput like the following when later:

ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.
ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used.

Re: Merge generates 0 observations

Patrick — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 23:18:52 GMT

@xyxu

Generic answer: Your condition in the subsetting IF statement is highly likely never TRUE.

Please post at a minimum your code so we have something to work with.

Re: Merge generates 0 observations

Reeza — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 01:50:02 GMT

@xyxu wrote:

I was pretty sure they are many same values for all "by" variables.

They look the same but aren't for some reason, variable length or case (upper/lower) are examples.

Re: Merge generates 0 observations

ChrisNZ — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 03:27:13 GMT

Just checking: you use a MERGE statement and not a SET statement, right?

Re: Merge generates 0 observations

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 05:45:32 GMT

Post:

- the code

- the log

- example data that illustrates your issue; do so in data steps generated with the macro from https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/How-to-create-a-data-step-version-of-your-data-AKA-generate/ta-p/258712, so we can easily recreate your datasets with all attributes as they are.

Without that supplemental information, every suggestion will just be guesswork and mostly useless for you.

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Merge generates 0 observations

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Re: Merge generates 0 observations