Unique Combinations of Groups

DSW — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 18:45:03 GMT

Suppose that I had a data set that contained a list of names that contained additional columns that group names based on name type (first, last, or middle) and length (short or long):

ID	NameType	Length	Name
1	First	Short	Jon
2	First	Long	Alexander
3	Middle	Short	Todd
4	Middle	Long	William
5	Last	Short	Smith
6	Last	Long	Stephanopoulos

How can I create all unique combinations of names from each of the groups by selecting only 1 first name that is either short or long, 1 middle name that is either short or long, and 1 last name that is either short or long? For example:

Jon	Todd	Smith
Jon	William	Smith
Jon	Todd	Stephanopoulos
Jon	William	Stephanopoulos
Alexander	Todd	Smith
Alexander	William	Smith
Alexander	Todd	Stephanopoulos
Alexander	William	Stephanopoulos

I thought that proc plan would work but I can't figure out how to do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Unique Combinations of Groups

ballardw — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 19:05:39 GMT

Here's one way:

data have;
   informat id best4. NameType $6. Length $5. Name $25.;
   input ID NameType Length Name   ;
datalines;
1 First Short Jon 
2 First Long Alexander 
3 Middle Short Todd 
4 Middle Long William 
5 Last Short Smith 
6 Last Long Stephanopoulos
;
run;


proc sql;
   create table FirstAndMid as
   select a.name as firstName, b.name as Middlename,c.name as Lastname
   from
      (select name from have 
         where Nametype='First') as a,
      (select name from have 
         where Nametype='Middle') as b,
      (select name from have 
         where Nametype='Last') as c
   ;
quit;

Note that I basically ignore the length as you didn't have any duplicate names with different lengths within a type.

topic Re: Unique Combinations of Groups in SAS Programming

Unique Combinations of Groups

Re: Unique Combinations of Groups