topic Conditional Array in SAS Programming

Conditional Array

SASPhile — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 19:53:43 GMT

a dataset has many variables and I want to selectively create arrays as follows:
a b c d h i l m n
array list1(*) not in (a b c)
array list2(*) not in (l m n)
array list3(*) not in (h i)

Is there a way SAs can handle this?

Re: Conditional Array

Reeza — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 20:04:27 GMT

Are you trying to create an array with list1 being the values d/h/i/l/m/n?

Re: Conditional Array

SASPhile — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 20:10:34 GMT

Yes

Re: Conditional Array

Astounding — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 20:27:24 GMT

Not knowing the details, it's possible you would be better off with just one array. For example:

array mylist {*} _numeric_;

do _n_=1 to dim(mylist);

if vname(mylist{_n_}) not in ('a' 'b' 'c') then do;

*** logic that applies to LIST1;

end;

if vname(mylist{_n_}) not in ('l' 'm' 'n') then do;

*** logic that applies to LIST2;

end;

if vname(mylist{_n_}) not in ('i' 'h') then do;

*** logic that applies to LIST3;

end;

The comparison to the lists (such as 'a' 'b' 'c') is case sensitive. You would need to be careful about the spelling of the variable names, or else just apply the LOWCASE function to make sure of what you are getting.

Re: Conditional Array

SASPhile — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 20:42:47 GMT

here a b c l m n h i are variables , so does the case come into play?

Re: Conditional Array

Astounding — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 20:49:05 GMT

Yes, case is important. The VNAME function retrieves the name of the variable. Are you certain whether it will retrieve H or h as the variable name? Safer but uglier:

if lowcase(vname(mylist{_n_})) not in ('h' 'i') then do;

Re: Conditional Array

novinosrin — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 21:08:12 GMT

@SASPhile How about

%let var=a b c d h i l m n;

%let list1=%sysfunc(compress(&var,abc));

%let list2=%sysfunc(compress(&var,lmn));

%let list3=%sysfunc(compress(&var,hi));

%put &list1;

%put &list2;

%put &list3;

data want;

array list1(*) &list1;

array list2(*) &list2;

array list3(*) &list3;

run;

Re: Conditional Array

SASPhile — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 14:24:58 GMT

The idea is good. Some what happens is if the variables have common letters between them , they get compressed and we dont get desired output. Like if I have three variables projectid studyid siteid, they all get compreesed.

Re: Conditional Array

novinosrin — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 16:18:41 GMT

Can you give me a simulated example close to your real plz?

Re: Conditional Array

Reeza — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 17:27:03 GMT

Look at the options iwthin the COMPRESS function to not have this happen.