topic Re: Selecting multiple numerical values in SAS Programming

Selecting multiple numerical values

rogersaj — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 17:16:31 GMT

I'm sure there's a simple answer to this, but how do I specify several numerical values that I'm interested in?

For example, for variable "hivstatus" I want to select values 0,1,2 to mark those as "Known HIV status."

I tried this but it didn't work:

if hivstatus = in('0','1','2') then status = 1;

Similarly, how do I select the opposite (ie, NOT 0,1,2)?

Thank you!

Re: Selecting multiple numerical values

Reeza — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 17:21:01 GMT

Your code:

if hivstatus = in('0','1','2') then status = 1;

SAS Code, assuming character variables. If this is numeric variable you don't need the quotation marks.

if hivstatus IN ('0','1','2') then  status = 1;

The corrresponding NOT would be:

if hivstatus NOT IN ('0','1','2') then  status = 0;

EDIT: You've said numeric variables so the code should be:

if hivstatus IN ( 0, 1,  2 ) then  status = 1;

Re: Selecting multiple numerical values

rogersaj — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 17:24:45 GMT

Reeza, you're my hero! It worked after I removed the equal sign and quotation marks.

Re: Selecting multiple numerical values

ballardw — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 17:41:51 GMT

An alternate approach for some purposes could be to use a custom format.

proc format;
value HIVStatus
0,1,2 = 'Text description'
3,4   = 'Other text'
.     = 'Missing'
;

proc freq data=have;
   tables HIVstatus;
   format HIVstatus HIVStatus. ;
run;

Would display the frequency table with the text assigned by the Format HIVStatus. This is a useful tool as you can apply different display values just by changing the format for a specific report procedure. For example you could have a long and short version of text for the individual or groups of codes or create different groups entirely. Many of the analysis and graphing procedures will honor the formatted value. So you don't have to add a new variable when wanting to use a new assignment.