topic Error Variable not found in SAS Programming

Error Variable not found

sgupta — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 16:46:15 GMT

Hello all,

I am trying to run logistic reg code but I am getting below error :

NOTE: PROCEDURE LOGISTIC used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

ERROR: Variable education not found.
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
7 proc logistic data=work.bank1 desc;
8 model y= age job marital education default campaign cons_price_idx cons_conf_idx
8 ! euribor3m/ctable ;
9 run;

The error says education variable is missing but I can see the variable in bank1.xls file when open in sas.What can I do to resolve this issue?Below is the code I am running

proc logistic data=work.bank1 desc;
model y= age job marital education default campaign cons_price_idx cons_conf_idx euribor3m/ctable ;
run;

Please reply

Re: Error Variable not found

FreelanceReinh — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 16:54:21 GMT

Hello @sgupta,

It's not enough that variable EDUCATION is contained in some Excel file. As a rule, for the PROC LOGISTIC step it's mandatory that this variable is also contained in the SAS dataset WORK.BANK1, i.e. in a file bank1.sas7bdat. You can check whether this is the case by submitting the following code:

proc contents data=work.bank1;
run;

What do you see in the output of the above PROC CONTENTS step?

Re: Error Variable not found

sgupta — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:01:17 GMT

I can see below output

[image: Inline image 1]

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Re: Error Variable not found

sgupta — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:07:39 GMT

when I run it I can see

under Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes:

Variable Type....... Label

EDUCATIO Num 8 BEST14. BEST14. EDUCATION

what does it mean.do i need to add something in code?

Re: Error Variable not found

FreelanceReinh — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:07:39 GMT

I'm sorry, but I can't see your output. It shows as text "[image: Inline image 1]" in my browser. Strange.

But the only relevant information is: Does the PROC CONTENTS output show a variable named EDUCATION (upper or lower case doesn't matter) or maybe only a variable whose label is "Education"?

Re: Error Variable not found

FreelanceReinh — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:10:22 GMT

That's exactly what I meant. So, the solution (regarding this specific error at least) is as simple as deleting the "n" in "education" in your PROC LOGISTIC step: educatio

Re: Error Variable not found

sgupta — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:22:33 GMT

Thanks

I similarly changed other variables and I am able to see output now.

But can Run the original code with varibale names same as Label names?will adding label statement help?

Re: Error Variable not found

FreelanceReinh — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 17:29:35 GMT

You're welcome.

No, you have to provide variable names to PROC LOGISTIC, not variable labels. Please note that variable labels, unlike variable names, may contain virtually any kind of special characters etc., which would cause nothing but problems.

If you don't like variable names such as educatio (which is the Latin word for "education", hence quite honorable 🙂 ), please feel free to rename your variables.

Re: Error Variable not found

ballardw — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 18:34:28 GMT

@sgupta wrote:

But can Run the original code with varibale names same as Label names?will adding label statement help?

I assign labels to almost every variable in my permanent data sets because they make reading the results in procedures much easier. SAS will usually show at least some if not all of the next of the label in analysis procedures.

If I have a variable named age_ptt and that text appears in the output, I am about the only one that might know what it stands for. if I haven't used the data for a while I might not even remember. But if I associate a label age_ptt="Age Prior to Treatment", then when the label appears in a procedure output it has much better use.

The exceptions to adding label are variables such as Year, though if there are multiple year/date variables even that may get a label, and common data elements such as Phone or Zip.