topic Re: How to combine two columns? in SAS Programming

How to combine two columns?

ybz12003 — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 19:15:43 GMT

Hello:

I would like to combine column 'Seq' and 'lab_mom' together. Please advice how to do it. Also, I think there is something wrong with my code cause the column 'lab_child' is not showing the data in SAS. Thanks.

data data3;

infile datalines dlm=',' dsd;

informat ID $4. Seq best8. DOB mmddyy10. lab_mom $8. lab_child $8.;

format dob mmddyys10.;

input ID Seq DOB lab_mom;

datalines;

A045, 1, 05/06/1979, NH,

A045, 2, 05/06/1979, NH,

A045, 1, 05/06/1979, ,NU

B100, 1, 06/15/1982, JJ,

B100, 2, 06/15/1982, JJ,

B100, 1, 06/15/1982, ,PJ

C300, 1, 05/06/1979, KK,

C300, 2, 05/06/1979, KK,

C300, 1, 05/06/1979, ,OL

;

Re: How to combine two columns?

ballardw — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 19:25:11 GMT

Since you do not assign any value to Lab_child why to you expect to see one? there is nothing on the dataline to read for a fifth variable. The variable is in the data set.

HOW do you want Seg and and Lab_mom combined?

some possible ways:

Combined= cats(seq,lab_mom);

combined= cats(lab_mom,seq);

combined= catx('_',lab_mom,seq);

combined= catx('-',seq,lab_mom);

but you really should show what you would expect the combination to look like.

Re: How to combine two columns?

ybz12003 — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 19:31:03 GMT

Such like,

1NH

2NH

1NU

Re: How to combine two columns?

ybz12003 — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 19:39:13 GMT

Hi, Ballardw:

The code is not working. The result only show numeric number, such as '1.'. But no charater is appending behind.

Re: How to combine two columns?

ballardw — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 22:20:38 GMT

data data3;
infile datalines dlm=',' dsd; 
informat ID $4. Seq best8. DOB mmddyy10. lab_mom $8. lab_child $8.;
format dob mmddyys10.;
input ID Seq DOB lab_mom;
Combined1= cats(seq,lab_mom);
combined2= cats(lab_mom,seq);
combined3= catx('_',lab_mom,seq);
combined4= catx('-',seq,lab_mom);

datalines;
A045, 1, 05/06/1979, NH,
A045, 2, 05/06/1979, NH,
A045, 1, 05/06/1979, ,NU
B100, 1, 06/15/1982, JJ,
B100, 2, 06/15/1982, JJ,
B100, 1, 06/15/1982, ,PJ
C300, 1, 05/06/1979, KK,
C300, 2, 05/06/1979, KK,
C300, 1, 05/06/1979, ,OL
;


proc print data=data3 noobs;
run;

Your result of 1 is when the is no value for lab_mon. NOTE that you have an extra comma in 3 of your data lines statements in the third, sixth and ninth lines. GIGO.

If this combined is supposed to be the lab_child then you should say so.

And saying the code doesn't work without showing what exact code you ran is pretty difficult to tell which code you mean.

Re: How to combine two columns?

ybz12003 — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 20:40:55 GMT

So, both Cats and Catx work in the numeric and charateric variables?

Re: How to combine two columns?

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 20:47:20 GMT

@ybz12003 wrote:

So, both Cats and Catx work in the numeric and charateric variables?

Try it. Look at the results and log afterwards, and learn.
See Maxim 4.

Re: How to combine two columns?

ybz12003 — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 20:35:13 GMT

Thank you so much for your great help!