topic Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ in SAS Procedures

Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

LXG — Mon, 27 May 2013 16:34:00 GMT

I got a problem when using PROC FREQ, can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

There is a percent sign (%) in the label of a variable - At least 30% increase, by using PROC FREQ for the frequency table i got result "At least 30%% increase" in the output window, present sign is doubled.

I'm using SAS V 9.3 TS1M0 on AIX 6.1 (AIX 64).

Try below codes:

data test;
   label x="Category" y="Percent (%)";
   do x=1,2;
      do y=20,30;
         output;
      end;
   end;
run;
 
proc freq data=test;
   table x*y;
run;

Here is the result:

The SAS System

The FREQ Procedure

Table of x by y

x(Category) y(Percent (%%))

Frequency_

Percent _

Row Pct _

Col Pct _ 20_ 30_ Total

____________________________

1 _ 1 _ 1 _ 2

_ 25.00 _ 25.00 _ 50.00

_ 50.00 _ 50.00 _

____________________________

2 _ 1 _ 1 _ 2

_ 25.00 _ 25.00 _ 50.00

_ 50.00 _ 50.00 _

____________________________

Total 2 2 4

50.00 50.00 100.00

Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

Reeza — Mon, 27 May 2013 16:44:29 GMT

Same results in SAS 9.2

Are you looking for a work around or reporting a bug?

Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

Tom — Mon, 27 May 2013 19:02:15 GMT

Seems to have started in 9.2. I do not see that in 6.12, 8.2 or 9.1.3 versions of SAS.

Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

LXG — Mon, 27 May 2013 23:27:27 GMT

i'm trying to eliminate this issue, as this kind of results is a part of my analysis report, %% is not acceptable. Otherwise, i'll have to avoid using % for the variable label.

I'm thinking maybe i can modify the template for PROC FREQ, but i'm not familiar with it at present.

Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

Reeza — Mon, 27 May 2013 23:59:22 GMT

You could also use proc tabulate instead, generally cleaner results anyways.

data test;

label x="Category" y="Percent (%)";

do x=1,2;

do y=20,30;

output;

end;

run;

proc tabulate data=test;

class x y;

table (x all='All X')*(n rowpctn colpctn), (y all='All Y');

run;

Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

LXG — Tue, 28 May 2013 00:08:39 GMT

sorry, i should provide more info. i have to use FREQ for an inferential test, the p-value is also required, e.g, table x*y/ CHISQ, the frequency table is a reference for the statistical results.

Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

Reeza — Tue, 28 May 2013 00:58:16 GMT

See here then:

SAS(R) 9.2 Output Delivery System: User's Guide

I highly format my output for typical statistical reports usually. If you wanted, you could capture the p-value and merge it into the results and then report it back out.

Regardless, I would report it to tech support, it definitely seems like a bug.

Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

joejw84 — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 13:21:55 GMT

Just been grappling with this very problem and found a way around it using the unicode representation for % rather than the character. You need to create an escape character, I used the '~', but it could be another character.

ods escapechar = "~";

data test;

label x= "Category" y= "Percent (~{unicode 0025})"; * Unicode 0025 is the code for '%';

do x=1,2;

do y=20,30;

output;

end;

run;

proc freq data=test;

table x*y;

run;

This will only work with the ODS output, and I've only tried it 9.3.

Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

Cynthia_sas — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 13:36:37 GMT

Hi:

I still think the OP should open a track with Tech Support. I found 2 references to "doubling" -- one in a solution for & and another for %, so I think this person has stumbled on some loophole that causes doubling that should have a track opened because the situation of %% that the OP found is different from what is described in this Tech Support note:

18708 - Dynamic column headers containing a percent sign (%) might generateunexpected results when using FILE PRINT ODS

and, other doubling behavior:

49188 - Double ampersands might appear in labels

cynthia

Re: Percent sign (%) in variable label is doubled (%%) by PROC FREQ

joejw84 — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 13:54:42 GMT

Agreed. It shouldn't need a work-around for something so simple.

Joe