topic How do I identify a fieldname from its value? in SAS Procedures

How do I identify a fieldname from its value?

ritam2011 — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:21:19 GMT

Guys, I am unsure how to proceed at this point. So I have thousands of rows of data with a hundred different fields. The field values are all integer values. I would like to identify which field contains the highest value in each row.

I can use the LARGEST() function to identify the 3 highest values in each row, but what I really need is the names of those 3 fields (added as 3 extra fields). Any suggestions?

How do I identify a fieldname from its value?

Reeza — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:15:15 GMT

What happens if you have multiples? Which variable would you take? or would you take 3 of the same?

Use an array of sorts with the whichn and vname function.

data have;

set sashelp.pricedata;

array pr{*} price1--price17;

firstvar=vname(pr[whichn(largest(1, of pr{*}), of pr{*})]);

run;

How do I identify a fieldname from its value?

ritam2011 — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:06:41 GMT

Thanks Reeza -- VNAME was what I was looking for. So I have the above working, the issue now is that some of the rows have all zero values in the fields, and the output in these cases is the first fieldname repeated all 3 times. I would like simply not to display any fieldname if values are 0. But how to do this with the above code?

How do I identify a fieldname from its value?

Ksharp — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:00:43 GMT

Then using array will give you more control.

Since not seeing your data ,it is hard to code exactly.

Ksharp