topic Re: Add a character to a variable in SAS Programming

Add a character to a variable

VonNeuman — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 15:08:00 GMT

Hi, I'm moving my first steps in Sas base programming. I'm trying to figure out how to solve the following problem:

id group_id id group_id

1 13456 1 13456C

2 12345 ---------> 2 12345C

3 34567 3 34567C

So, in nutshell, I want to add a character to an entire dataset variable.

Thanks

Re: Add a character to a variable

RW9 — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 15:14:49 GMT

Is group_id a numeric variable? If so you can't, you cannot put non numeric characters in a numeric field. Now you can move this to a character field:

data want (drop=old_group_id);
  length group_id $50;
  set have (rename=(group_id=old_group_id));
  group_id=cats(put(old_group_id,best.),"C");
run;

If group_id is character then:

data want;
  set have;
  group_id=cats(group_id,"C");
run;

Re: Add a character to a variable

rivieralad — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 15:18:49 GMT

Hi,
Depends whether your existing values are held as numeric or character variables.
If character then look at the CATS function.
If numeric then look at the PUT function to with a suitable format to convert to character first and then the CATS function.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Chris