topic Re: Why rename is not working? in SAS Programming

Why rename is not working?

Moksha — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 14:13:14 GMT

Hi All,

I have a data set "EMP" with column name ID. When I try to rename it to EMPID, it's not renaming.

Code:

data test;

set EMP (rename=(ID=EMPID));

run;

No, errors, "test" data set is getting created with all observations but without renaming the column ID.

I am not able to understand why it is not renaming the column.

I have tried like this also:

data test;

set EMP;

rename ID=EMPID;

run;

Please, help me to understand what could be the reason and how to resolve it.

When I try to check the following code, it is working:

data test1;

set sashelp.class;

run;

date test1_rename;

set test1 (rename=(NAME=EMPID));

run;

Re: Why rename is not working?

Moksha — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 14:42:51 GMT

I have just realized that using the column also has a label 'ID' and hence though internally it is renaming the column but since the label is not changed, it is displaying ID instead of EMPID.

Can anyone advise how to rename both column name and label?

Thanks

Re: Why rename is not working?

Moksha — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 15:09:47 GMT

I have tried the following and it is working:

data test;

set EMP;

run;

data test;

set test (rename(ID=EMPID));

label EMPID='EMPID';

run;

and it worked.

Re: Why rename is not working?

yabwon — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 15:09:52 GMT

Try this:

data test;
  set sashelp.class(rename=(age=NEW_AGE));
  label NEW_AGE="New label for New Age";
run;

Simplest way to see variables names and labels (if there are any) is to run:

proc contents data=test;
run;

Bart

Re: Why rename is not working?

Moksha — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 15:12:57 GMT

Thank you. I have tried this and it also worked.

Re: Why rename is not working?

ballardw — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 16:26:27 GMT

@Moksha wrote:

I have just realized that using the column also has a label 'ID' and hence though internally it is renaming the column but since the label is not changed, it is displaying ID instead of EMPID.

Can anyone advise how to rename both column name and label?

Thanks

Proc datasets will do both to a set in place. No need to create a new data set or take the chance of corrupting data that can happen with a logic error in a Data step.

Proc datasets library=yourlib nodetails nolist;
  modify somedatset;
  rename oldname=newname;
  label newname='New label text';
run;
quit;

The nodetails and nolist options suppress printing some output to your results.

You can have multiple rename and label pairs in a single rename or label statement if desired. You can also change formats.

The procedure supports run group processing, such as modifying different data sets. So the procedure requires a Quit statement to end the procedure.

Re: Why rename is not working?

Moksha — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 17:24:20 GMT

Thank you very much. I will definitely use this suggestion instead of new data set creation.

Re: Why rename is not working?

Tom — Sun, 04 Jun 2023 00:59:07 GMT

If you just remove the label then places that display labels instead of names will display the name.

label emplid=' ';