topic How to specify the order of by groups? in SAS Procedures

How to specify the order of by groups?

WesBarris — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:49:56 GMT

I have some data that I would like to print or plot. I would like the output grouped by a certain variable. I can do this like this:

data test;

proc print; by source;

proc means; by source;

In my example source can be a single letter 'A', 'B', 'C', or 'D'. I would like to specify the order of the groups. I don't want it to be

alphabetical. I might want the order to be 'C', 'B', 'D', 'A'. Is there a way to do this?

How to specify the order of by groups?

art297 — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:05:42 GMT

There might be a more direct method I can't think of at the moment, but you can always create an informat, apply it, and then use it as your by variable. e.g.:

proc format;

invalue $names

'Henry'=1

'Alice'=2

'James'=3

'Jane'=4

other=5;

run;

data test;

set sashelp.class;

sortnames=input(name,$names.);

run;

proc sort data=test;

by sortnames;

run;

proc print data=test (

drop=name rename=(sortnames=name));

by name;

run;

How to specify the order of by groups?

Ksharp — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:54:41 GMT

Art. it should be

proc format;

invalue names

Not include Dollar sign because it is numeric informat not character.

I know SAS passed this fragment code. But I recommend to not use $.

Ksharp

How to specify the order of by groups?

WesBarris — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:20:06 GMT

Thanks Art. However, the output of your example includes name=1, name=2, etc. Is there a way to show the original names in the output instead of the value we are using to specify their order?

How to specify the order of by groups?

SteveDenham — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:11:30 GMT

I don't know about "instead of", but I do know how to get "in addition to."

proc sort data=test;

by sortnames name;

run;

proc print data=test ;

by sortnames name;

run;

This should at least put both in the byvar header block.

Steve Denham

Re: How to specify the order of by groups?

MikeZdeb — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:47:00 GMT

Hi ... never tried this before, but it appears to do what you asked ...

proc trantab table=ascii;

replace 'C' '1' ;

replace 'B' '2';

replace 'D' '3';

replace 'A' '4';

save table=test;

quit;

data x;

do _n_ = 1 to 1000;

letter = char('ABCD',rantbl(999,.25,.25,.25));

x = ceil(1000*ranuni(999));

output;

end;

run;

proc sort data=x sortseq=test;

by letter;

run;

proc means data=x;

by letter;

run;