topic Re: Compare statement in SAS Enterprise Guide

Compare statement

CP2 — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 15:03:48 GMT

Can anyone tell me why EG compare datasets will show a very small difference for an exact match and if there is a setting that might be doing this that I should change? I have attached a snapshot of the results. The Base plot variable is a calculated field BUT it is only created by adding .01 NOT multiplication.

Re: Compare statement

arodriguez — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 15:10:24 GMT

Hi CP2,

Seems a Machine-Precision probleme. It's related with how number are saved in base 2 in a compute, for example 0.1 could not be represented without error in a compute.

It's happen in all compute with all numbers, a way to solve it could be a round(var,0.0000000000001). Since you are working with not many decimals, this should not affect your calcs and solve the problems with EG.

Re: Compare statement

ballardw — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 16:00:58 GMT

The Proc Compare option FUZZ allows you to tune how close values may be to consider equal and not make into the report.

Try adding (or selecting the option) to set Fuzz=1e-10. That would consider values within 0.0000000001 to be equal. Since 1e-10 is larger than your shown e-14 range then likely most or your issue would be resolved.