Delete leading column with blank header in a sas dataset

Aman1974 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:07:46 GMT

Hi,

I have a SAS dataset that has a leading column with a blank header. How do I go about removing that column?

Thanks

Re: Delete leading column with blank header in a sas dataset

TheShark — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:25:56 GMT

If it's just a blank column you can drop it. I think you mean row?

Dropping a column would look like this,

data want;
set have;
drop blank_field_name;
run;

Typically a blank header comes from a file that has been imported, can you modify the file before importing to remove the blank row?

If that's not the case you can do this many different ways.

You could do something like,

data want;
set have;
 IF _N_>=2;
run;

Or do a data step to groom the data and use a line similar to if field='.' then delete; but then the field you are looking at for the blank may have blanks elsewhere in the data that get removed as well. It would look something like this,

data want;
set have;
 IF field='.' then delete;
run;

Or use the option firstobs=2.

data want;
set have (firstobs=2);
run;

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Delete leading column with blank header in a sas dataset

Re: Delete leading column with blank header in a sas dataset