How to convert multiple special missing to regular missing

[sackey]

Hello,

I have a SAS dataset (dataset name= Gold) with special missing (.A .B .D) in 400 various variables (such as Age, Weight, Sex, Race). 

A colleague who uses SPSS will be using this dataset and when I export it to a CSV file, the special missing appears as text (A B D etc). 

I will appreciate help converting all the special missing to regular missing (.) in the various variables. 

Thanks

Sackey 

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

You can use an ARRAY to go through all variables and convert them to regular missing.

Something like this

data want;
    set have;
    array check a b c d e; /* Your actual variable names go here */
    do i=1 to dim(check);
        if missing(check(i)) then check(i)=.;
    end;
run;

[Shmuel]

If you have in a column a character like 'A'  - how can you know if it is the '.A' in origin (i.e. missing value) or the real 'A' character ?

In case all thus variables shuould be numeric then you can check for numbers (digits) otherwise it is a missing value.

[sackey]

Thank you for your input. In this dataset, there are are no characters like 'A' which could be mixed up with a '.A' missing.