topic Re: Got error msg saying "expecting a ;" when ive checked multiple times and am not missin in SAS Programming

Got error msg saying "expecting a ;" when ive checked multiple times and am not missing any

jkinkade7 — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 23:59:36 GMT

Apologies if I've put this in the wrong place, I'm completely new here but this seemed like the best forum based on the introductory channels' description.

Basically I am working on a class assignment and trying to create two different subsets of my data: one with only renters included and one with only homeowner's included. My code that's not functioning is below, and I can supply more if needed:

data RentersData;
	set FullData2;
	delete if RENTGRS=0;
run;

Basically I am trying to drop all observations from my data where gross rent payments (RENTGRS) are equal to 0 so that only renters are included. However, I keep getting an error message that says ERROR 79-322: Expecting a ;.

Adding a screenshot below of the error message just in case there's any important detail I may have ignored

I hope this is descriptive enough, I can provide additional info if necessary. Thank you

Re: Got error msg saying "expecting a ;" when ive checked multiple times and am not missin

Modeller — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 00:17:29 GMT

I believe you need to switch your "delete" & "if" statements around. See solution 1 below.

I have included solutions 2 &3 that achieve the same result using different methods as well.

Re: Got error msg saying "expecting a ;" when ive checked multiple times and am not missin

jkinkade7 — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 00:20:37 GMT

Thank you so much, Solution 1 worked perfectly. I appreciate the additional solution approaches as well because they look like a cleaner solution than what I was opting for, I think they will help me a lot in the future

Re: Got error msg saying "expecting a ;" when ive checked multiple times and am not missin

Tom — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 01:39:28 GMT

The DELETE statement does not allow any other text. That is why SAS says you are missing a semicolon. Your text looks like it was meant to be two statements. A DELETE statement and subsetting IF statement.

delete;
if RENTGRS=0;

But that would delete every observation.

If you want to conditionally execute the DELETE statement then you can use an IF/THEN statement and code the DELETE statement as the statement to execute when the condition is true.

if RENTGRS=0 then delete;

If instead you want to use a subsetting IF statement you will need to reverse the logic of condition since now you want to specify the condition for when to NOT delete the observation.

if RENTGRS ne 0;