Assigning random Alphanumeric IDs to empty cells

[Escada]

Hi,

I have an existing table which contains a column listing IDs. However some of its cells contain an empty ID:

  ID         Age

XYS        29

               60

STW       55

WTR      36

              45

I would like to assign Alphanumeric IDs (20 digits) to these empty cells in order for them to be filled, but never repeated. This should also happen, irrespectively of the number of rows of the data set, as follows:

  ID               Age

XYSRW        29

RAND1         60

STWQT        55

WTRWQ       36

RAND2         45

Can somebody help me on this issue, with a simple statement that fills automatically these empty fields randomly?

Thank you so much.

Fernando

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

data want (drop=cnt);
  set have;
  retain cnt;
  if _n_=1 then cnt=1;
  if missing(id) then do;
    id=cats("RAND",put(cnt,best.));
    cnt=cnt+1;
  end;
run;

[Escada]

Perfect!
Thank you so much for your help, RW9.

Kind regards,
Fernando

[Escada]

Please do not take into account the lenght of the ID of the fields in your answer, as it is not important.