topic Re: What does .N and .E do? in SAS Procedures

What does .N and .E do?

deleted_user — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:54:24 GMT

Hi, I have pasted a small piece of SAS code below. Can someone please tell me what is the meaning of .N and .E. What they return/do?

case when cms.NEXT_PMT_DUE_DT is not null
then DATEPART(cms.NEXT_PMT_DUE_DT)
when cms.NEXT_PMT_DUE_DT is null
then .N
else .E
end

Re: What does .N and .E do?

RickM — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:09:02 GMT

Those are missing numeric values. Besides using "." you can also use .A through .Z and ._ . This is helpful when you want to keep track of different reasons why a value is missing.

Re: What does .N and .E do?

deleted_user — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:12:48 GMT

Thanks a lot Rick. Appreciate your help 🙂

Re: What does .N and .E do?

deleted_user — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:19:43 GMT

Rick,

Can you tell me how missing is different than NULL ?

Thanks in advance.

Re: What does .N and .E do?

sbb — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:22:27 GMT

Suggested reading on SAS PROC SQL and MISSING / NULL condition - link below.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/sqlproc/62086/HTML/default/a001409512.htm

Suggested Google advanced search argument, this topic/post:

proc sql missing value null site:sas.com

Re: What does .N and .E do?

deleted_user — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:28:35 GMT

Thanks Scott. Now, I am clear about the differences between NULL and MISSING.