topic Re: Wildcarding Variable names in SAS Procedures

Wildcarding Variable names

crayfordsean — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:52:02 GMT

Hi,

I'd like to know if there is a way of formatting all the date variables using a wildcard naming convention. For instance, if you have 4
date variables (datestart, dateend, datedue and datestopped), you can use the following; 'format date: ddmmyy8.;' but if the

variables were called startdate, enddate, duedate and stopdate, is there a way to wildcard the variable name from the beginning ?

Thanks for any help offered.

Re: Wildcarding Variable names

Reeza — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:58:15 GMT

Not really

You could create a list of all variables that end in date using dictionary.Columns/sashelp.vcolumn but it may not be worth it.

Re: Wildcarding Variable names

Loko — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:00:51 GMT

Hello,

As Reeza stated you may use the dictionary. Something like this:

proc sql noprint;
select name into :vars separated by ' ' from sashelp.vcolumn
where memname='CLASS' and libname='SASHELP' AND name like '%e';
quit;

%put &vars;

data want;
informat &vars $15.;
set sashelp.class (drop=&vars) ;
run;

Re: Wildcarding Variable names

Reeza — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:05:14 GMT

IIf the variables are side by side you can use --

format firstvar--lastvar date9.;

Re: Wildcarding Variable names

art297 — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:30:37 GMT

If the variables aren't side by side here is a working example of what Fareeza suggested:

data have;

input startdate x enddate y duedate stopdate;

cards;

1 2 3 4 5 6

2 3 4 5 6 7

;

proc sql noprint;

select name into :vars

separated by ' '

from sashelp.vcolumn

where libname='WORK' and

memname='HAVE' and

name like '%date'

;

quit;

data want;

set have;

format &vars. date9.;

run;

Re: Wildcarding Variable names

data_null__ — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 16:42:35 GMT

If you put the FORMAT statement after the SET it won't reorder the variables in HAVE.

Re: Wildcarding Variable names

art297 — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 16:56:48 GMT

Good point! I changed it in my post.