topic Number of Observations in a SAS Dataset in SAS Programming

Number of Observations in a SAS Dataset

CG1 — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 07:26:41 GMT

Hi Friend,

I have good SQL knowledge but new SAS learner, I need to count total number of observation from one data set

I am following below steps

data students;
input gender score;
cards;
1 48
1 45
2 50
2 42
1 41
2 51
1 52
1 43
2 52
;
run;

now I need total count from above table.

proc sql;
select count(*) from students1;
quit;

above queyr will give output 9 but when I am converting ths into SAS code

data students1;
set students;
count + 1;
by gender;
if first.gender then count = 1;
run;

proc print data = students1;
run;

above code I find out from the google and also this is not giving output 9. I am on a SAS learning stage . Please help

Can you please help me to correct the code and get the count 9

Re: Number of Observations in a SAS Dataset

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 07:43:32 GMT

First of all, this happens:

31         data students1;
32         set students;
33         count + 1;
34         by gender;
35         if first.gender then count = 1;
36         run;

ERROR: BY variables are not properly sorted on data set WORK.STUDENTS.

So you have to do

proc sort data=students;
by gender;
run;

before you try that data step.

Now you get that output:

                                                  Obs    gender    score    count

                                                   1        1        48       1  
                                                   2        1        45       2  
                                                   3        1        41       3  
                                                   4        1        52       4  
                                                   5        1        43       5  
                                                   6        2        50       1  
                                                   7        2        42       2  
                                                   8        2        51       3  
                                                   9        2        52       4

You can see that the final counts for both values of gender add up to 9.

To get a simple total count, do this:

data students1;
set students;
count + 1;
run;

Now, you can get the total number of observations in a dataset much easier (and quicker, once the datasets grow) by querying its metadata&colon;

proc sql;
select nobs from dictionary.tables where libname = 'WORK' and memname = 'STUDENTS';
quit;

Re: Number of Observations in a SAS Dataset

Reeza — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 10:52:02 GMT

Although you can count the number of obs using a data step you probably shouldn't. There are many ther ways to do so, one being querying the metadata tables and another is using a summary proc such as proc means or proc freq.

proc means data=students;

class gender;

run;

proc freq data=students;

tables gender;

run;