topic creating new variables in if-then statements in SAS Programming

creating new variables in if-then statements

andrewfau — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 18:36:52 GMT

data employees;
infile 'c:\users\************\*******\employees.dat';
input ssn :$1-11 name & $12-28 dob :date10. paygrade $ monsal :comma6.2 job & :$71-100;
if paygrade = 'gr20' then do;
minimum = 50000.00;
maximum = 70000.00;
end;

age = int(yrdif(dob, today (), 'age'));
put monsal dollar7.2;

run;

I am trying to create min and max variables based on the paygrade codes. This is an exercise that comes out of the "The Little SAS Book." When I run this program I get two new variables for minimum and maximum but there are just periods in the columns. I tried using 50000 instead of 50000.00 and that didn't work either. Do I have a formatting problem with the numeric data or is my program not written correctly.

This is exercise 31d from Chapter 3 in "Exercises and Projects for The Little SAS Book."

Re: creating new variables in if-then statements

PaigeMiller — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 18:46:29 GMT

You get the periods because at no time in your data do you have paygrade='gr20'. I don't know if this is just a capitalization mismatch, or that 'gr20' never appears in your data. You need to write code to tell SAS what it should do if it finds paygrade is not equal to 'gr20'.

Re: creating new variables in if-then statements

error_prone — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 18:49:43 GMT

Things total check in the data-file: is there any obs having paygrade "gr20"? Both letters have time be in low case.
Maximum and minimum are only set of paygrade is gr20, any obs having another value will show missing value fit both vars.

Re: creating new variables in if-then statements

andrewfau — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 18:50:06 GMT

Re: creating new variables in if-then statements

andrewfau — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 18:51:15 GMT

Gotcha. It was the lowercase that was the problem. Thanks!

Re: creating new variables in if-then statements

andrewfau — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 18:57:48 GMT

data employees;

input ssn :$1-11 name & $12-28 dob :date10. paygrade $ monsal :comma6.2 job & :$71-100;
if paygrade = 'GR20' then do;
minimum = 50000;
maximum = 70000;
end;
if paygrade = 'GR21' then do;
minimum = 55000;
maximum = 75000;
end;
if paygrade = 'GR22' then do;
minimum = 60000;
maximum = 85000;
end;
if paygrade = 'GR23' then do;
minimum = 70000;
maximum = 100000;
end;
if paygrade = 'GR24' then do;
minimum = 80000;
maximum = 120000;
end;
if paygrade = 'GR25' then do;
minimum = 100000;
maximum = 150000;
end;
if paygrade = 'GR26' then do;
minimum = 120000;
maximum = 200000;
end;
age = int(yrdif(dob, today (), 'age'));
put monsal dollar7.2;

run;

Is there a way i can condense those if then statements or do I need to write them all individually for a problem like this?

Re: creating new variables in if-then statements

Reeza — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 19:21:57 GMT

You could probably do an array. Not sure it's less code in the end, but easier to manage perhaps?

array min_pay(20:26) (50000 55000 60000 70000 ... 120000);
array max_pay(20:26) (70000 75000 .. 200000);

grade = input(compress(paygrade, ,'kd'), 8.);
minimum = min_pay(grade);
maximum = max_pay(grade);