topic how to assign sequential number vars to alpha vars in SAS Procedures

how to assign sequential number vars to alpha vars

podarum — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:21:00 GMT

Hi, I have about 120 Postal Codes or FSA's (M1P, M2H, .. V3T, etc..) I would like to assign a sequence name to each one. So the first A0A would have something like FSA1 and the next AOB would have like FSA2 and last V0W wold have FSA120. And I'd have a table for reference. I'm doing this becasue I need to use proc similarity and the TARGET variables need to be in a numeric sequence. Thanks.

Have:

FSA

A0A

A0B

A0C

M1P

M2H

N9Y

.....

VOW

Want:

FSA POSTAL

A0A FSA1

A0B FSA2

A0C FSA3

M1P FSA4

M2H FSA5

N9Y FSA6

...

V0W FSA120;

how to assign sequential number vars to alpha vars

Linlin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:47:15 GMT

Hi podarum,

Please remembe to give people credit if they provide you with correct answer. Thank you!

data have;

input fsa$;

cards;

A0A

A0B

A0C

M1P

M2H

N9Y

;

data want;

set have;

postal=cats('fsa',_n_);

proc print;run;

Obs fsa postal

1 A0A fsa1

2 A0B fsa2

3 A0C fsa3

4 M1P fsa4

5 M2H fsa5

6 N9Y fsa6

Linlin

how to assign sequential number vars to alpha vars

MikeZdeb — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:33:45 GMT

hi ... might add a LENGTH statement when using CAT functions, otherwise length of POSTAL is 200

how to assign sequential number vars to alpha vars

podarum — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:20:42 GMT

Thank you Linlin, very helpful.

how to assign sequential number vars to alpha vars

Linlin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:29:54 GMT

Thank you Mike. I will add a length statement next time.

Linlin

how to assign sequential number vars to alpha vars

podarum — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:09:23 GMT

Hi, when I put them in proc transpose, I get the postal coulms (eg. FSA1, FSA2..FSA120) sorted as such : FSA1, FSA10, FSA100, FSA101, FSA2....FSA99., but is there a way to sort them numerically as FSA1 FSA2 FSA3...FSA120. Thanks

how to assign sequential number vars to alpha vars

art297 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:16:24 GMT

Easiest way, I think, would be to assign them with leading zeros. e.g.:

data want;

set have;

postal=cats('fsa',put(_n_,z3.));

run;