topic Re: if first.id in SAS Procedures

if first.id

Tal — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 21:00:37 GMT

hi guys,

i have a dataset something like:

company_name Employee_id ranking

ibm 100 4

ibm 100 6

ibm 101 5

apple 104 7

apple 104 8

........................

..........................

i need to pick the record of the empoyeer with the highest ranking :

ibm 100 6

ibm 101 5

apple 104 8

so was wondering if my logic is right:

proc sort data=have;by comp_name emp_id desecending ranking;

data want;

set have

by comp_name emp_id desecending ranking;

if first.emp_id?

Thanks

Re: if first.id

Reeza — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 21:12:07 GMT

Fastest way is to try it. Best part about most programming is it's quick and easy to try things.

You should always have a method to test your logic, relying on a forum isn't a good way 🙂

Re: if first.id

Tal — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 21:16:05 GMT

i did try it and for small dataset it worked but not sure if they were just a coincidence 🙂

Re: if first.id

Reeza — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 23:03:27 GMT

That's why you build test cases.

Generate a basic case, then what happens if you have one one record per id, multiple records per id, multiple id's and finally, what if you have ties?

Re: if first.id

PGStats — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 03:19:05 GMT

Submitting that code will return an error. Before testing your logic, you will need the correct syntax. Keyword desecending should be spelled descending.

Good luck.

Re: if first.id

Tal — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:23:46 GMT

so to confirm that logic works i created a temp flag =cats( comp_name, emp_id) and then sorted by tempflag ranking and applied "if first.tempflag" and got the same result as i got with the above approach so i guess i was on the right track

never had such situations so i was not sure 🙂

Cheers