topic Re: Merging data in SAS Programming

Merging data

mspak — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:22:50 GMT

Dear all,

I have 2 files:

A and B (attached).

I would like to merge the data by state and fyear. However, it is unknow why it failed. I used the following code:

PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE TEST AS
SELECT A.*, B.*
FROM A
LEFT JOIN B
ON A.STATE=B.STATE AND A.FYEAR=B.FYEAR;
QUIT;

Hope anyone give me a solution.

Thank you.

MSPAK

Re: Merging data

Reeza — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:27:57 GMT

Post your log and please explain what you mean by failed.

Re: Merging data

mspak — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:32:29 GMT

There is no error message, but the following note is found:

NOTE: Table WORK.test created, with 0 rows and 1262 columns.

Re: Merging data

Reeza — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:36:46 GMT

Check that the variables you're merging on have same type and formats - use PROC contents.

Run a proc freq on each of the variables and look for inconsistencies.

Post the log and whatever results you can.

Re: Merging data

mspak — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:40:12 GMT

Result from proc contents

SAS Output

Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes (DATASET A)
#	Variable	Type	Len	Label
2	BankState	Char	24
4	FailedBanknum	Num	8
3	FailureYr	Num	8
6	R5_FailedBank	Num	8	Rank for Variable FailedBanknum
7	fyear	Num	8
5	logFBanknum	Num	8
1	state	Char	8

SAS Output

Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes (DATASET B)
#	Variable	Type	Len	Format	Informat	Label
2	FYEAR	Num	8	F6.	6.	Data Year - Fiscal
1	GVKEY	Char	6	$6.	$6.	Global Company Key
3	STATE	Char	8	$8.	$8.	State/Province

Re: Merging data

PeterClemmensen — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:40:47 GMT

I get the following:

You should probably think about what columns to select though..

Re: Merging data

mspak — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:46:54 GMT

Hi again,

If you open the output, you will notice that the GVKEY variable are all blank. I need the gvkey.

Re: Merging data

Reeza — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:51:37 GMT

@mspak wrote:

There is no error message, but the following note is found:

NOTE: Table WORK.test created, with 0 rows and 1262 columns.

How is GVKEY blank if there's no rows. I feel like we're missing something.

Re: Merging data

mspak — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:59:21 GMT

If I used the following code, no row is generaed:

PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE testAS
SELECT a.*, b.*
FROM B a, A b
WHERE (b.fyear = a.failureyr AND b.state = a.bankSTATE); quit:

Re: Merging data

Reeza — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 15:34:51 GMT

So you posted code in your original question and then the note from different code?

Most likely your state state aren't matching for some reason.

Verify visually with a proc freq. Are the spellings and case exactly the same?

Trim/Compress the variables to remove any possible invisible characters and try your merge again.

PS Many can't/won't download zip files due to IT restrictions and viruses.

Good Luck

Re: Merging data

Patrick — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 23:02:21 GMT

You get zero rows because your where clause is never true.

You should not use the * wildcard in the select statement like you do if there can be same named columns coming from both source tables.

And just as an observation:

Your State variable has a length of 8, your bankState variable has a length of 24. Looks to me as if these two variables contain likely different information (eg. codes or abbreviations vs full names). Also casing will be important (use an upcase() function if you can't be sure that casing matches).

Re: Merging data

mspak — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 09:11:28 GMT

I can't see difference on the abrevation between two files. I might just convert it to excel and do it manually.