topic wrong variable type: how to search in SAS Programming

wrong variable type: how to search

fengyuwuzu — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 18:40:38 GMT

In my data, some character variables were defined as numeric by mistake.

In this case, if I want to search "Yes" or "No", it does not work.

25 GOPTIONS ACCESSIBLE;
26 data test;
27 set db.ct_reading;
28 where qc_accepted = 'Yes';
ERROR: WHERE clause operator requires compatible variables.
29 run;

How to work around this situation?

I also see some cases where character variable missing is "." and numeric variable missing is " ".

How to condition on these mis-typed missing values?

Re: wrong variable type: how to search

PaigeMiller — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 18:43:43 GMT

These numeric variables are formatted to show "yes" or "no"

You have to search for the numeric values, such as (this is often the case, but not always) 1 for yes and 0 for no.

Or you could remove the format, and then you can see in the view which values they have.

Re: wrong variable type: how to search

fengyuwuzu — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 19:07:20 GMT

yes, I used 1 for yes and it works.

I will also try removing format.