topic Re: how to create a variable, modify a variable, where it contains lots of missing values, in SAS Programming

how to create a variable, modify a variable, where it contains lots of missing values,

Bal23 — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 15:56:23 GMT

where it contains lots of missing values, say 98% of obs have missing values.

whether i use

if var1 NE . then var2 ="M";

or if var1 ne "." then var2 ="M"

it does not work, i do see lots of missing values, but just cannot create var2

any advice?

thanks.

Re: how to create a variable, modify a variable, where it contains lots of missing values,

ballardw — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 16:14:54 GMT

Missing for character values is not "."

It would be easier to use

if not missing(var1) then var2='M';

as the Missing function will use the correct comparison for numeric or character as needed.

Re: how to create a variable, modify a variable, where it contains lots of missing values,

Bal23 — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 16:36:02 GMT

thank you, but how to identify those missing values, I need to identy those as well, how to create a variable and give a vlue for those with missing values

Re: how to create a variable, modify a variable, where it contains lots of missing values,

ballardw — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 17:40:08 GMT

If missing(var1) then var2='whateveryouwantto assign';

Re: how to create a variable, modify a variable, where it contains lots of missing values,

Reeza — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 19:04:16 GMT

Are your variables character or numeric? Are they all the same type?

Post an example of what your data looks like and what you want as an output.

I think you want an array, assign the variables to the array and then loop through and create variables that flag if they're missing.

Also, what isyour end goal with flagging these as missing? There may be another way to get it.