topic Re: If-then-else in SAS Programming

If-then-else

Y_S — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 05:59:56 GMT

data a;

input name $8. level 1.;

cards;

Alfred 1

Alice 2

Barbara 2

Carol 3

Brut 4

Kelly .

Juan 1

;

run;

data exp;

set a;

if level =. then exp = 'Unknown';

else if level = 1 then exp = 'Low';

else if level= 2 or 3 then exp ='Medium';

else exp = 'high';

run;

The output dor dataset exp is as below:

name	level	exp
Alfred	.	Unknown
Alice	2	Medium
Barbara	2	Medium
Carol	3	Medium
Brut	4	Medium
Kelly	.	Unknown
Juan	1	Low

Not sure why for level 4 exp is 'Medium'?

Re: If-then-else

JoshB — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 06:26:16 GMT

You would need to use the 'in' operator or list out each condition of the 'or' operator for the 'Medium' assignment.

else if level in(2 3) then exp ='Medium';

/* or */

else if level = 2 or level = 3 then exp = 'Medium';

I would also recommend you take a look at PROC FORMAT. It is useful for assignment logic like this.

Re: If-then-else

Y_S — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 06:32:54 GMT

Thanks for the solution, but I am intrested in understanding why exp for level 4 is 'Medium' when datastep written in that way.

Re: If-then-else

JoshB — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 06:40:59 GMT

Not 100% sure, but my hunch is that the expression is being evaluated like so..

if (level = 2) or ( 3 )

For your observation in question, level = 2 is evaulated as false, but (3) on it's own is always true. It would be like saying if 3 ^= .

The if statement returns a value of true, thus the assignment of 'Medium' takes place.

Re: If-then-else

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 07:02:30 GMT

else if level= 2 or 3 then exp ='Medium';

is translated as

if (level = 2) or (3)

Now, in SAS the boolean value of "false" is represented by the number zero; any other numerical value means "true". "3" is therefore always true, and makes the whole condition always true, meaning that the branch for "high" will never be entered.

Edit: Heh, Josh beat me to it.