topic Re: proc sql : Outer union corr in SAS Procedures

proc sql : Outer union corr

deleted_user — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:32:55 GMT

I need to concatenate two data sets using outer union corr. But these two datasets have different number of variables

WORK.READXTRAN has 196955 observations and 264 variables
WORK.READXTRAO has 1012170 observations and 245 variables

I'm trying to do:

proc sql;
Create table readxtra as
select *
from readxtraN
OUTER UNION CORRESPONDING
select *
from readxtraO;
quit;

I get an error: ERROR: Column 203 from the first contributor of OUTER UNION is not the same type as its counterpart

Please suggest how I should contenate these two datasets using proc sql?

Re: proc sql : Outer union corr

Peter_C — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:00:19 GMT

you'll need to rename that column, and any others which have different datatypes for the same name.
The message indicates its number not its name, but PROC CONTENTS will provide the numbers.

Re: proc sql : Outer union corr

christinagting0 — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:37:50 GMT

Can someone elaborate on this? I am having the same issue, but I don't understand the solution here.

What do you mean rename the column? Just name the variable name?

I have a number of these errors! Does that mean I have to rename every single column? What do I rename them to?

Re: proc sql : Outer union corr

Patrick — Sat, 25 Jun 2016 06:35:53 GMT

Run below code. That will hopefully explain it to you.

data have1;
  attrib 
    A length=8
    b length=8;
  A=1;
  B=1;
run;
data have2;
  attrib 
    A length= 8
    B length= $20;
  A=2;
  B='2';
run;

/* throws an error because column B is of different type in source tables  */
/* error indicates which column based on variable number causes the issue  */
/* running proc contents over source tables will return the variable names with attributs */
/*   so the problematic column is easily identified                        */
proc sql;
  create table demo1 as
  select *
  from have1
  outer union corresponding
  select *
  from have2
  ;
quit;

/* will work */
proc sql;
  create table demo1 as
  select a, b as b1
  from have1
  outer union corresponding
  select a, b as b2
  from have2
  ;
quit;

Re: proc sql : Outer union corr

christinagting0 — Sun, 26 Jun 2016 16:59:48 GMT

Thanks Patrick for taking the time to post the example. It really does help!

I have a question though.

I notice that the correct proc sql code renames variables b to b1 from dataset have 1, and then renames b to b2 from dataset 2. But for the merging of the two datasets I want b1 and b2 to be in the same column.

So for example:

data set have 1 has variables a and b

data set have 2 has variables a and b

final merged data set has variables a and b which contains the data points from variables a and b from dataset have 1 and have2.

is there a way to do this?

Thank you