How to deal with multiple different column names in an effecient way

[DingDing]

I need to change something with all the variables in my dataset, but there are around 100 variables and at the same time, the column names are very different and irregular , for example, ws  tsfg  ttt  etttt ssdf  tkw  trp.

Of course I can't do the same behavior for each variable for 100 times. I am wondering is there an efficient way to do with the irregular variable names?

[Reeza]

Yes ... But it depends on what you want to do. Common tasks are adding a prefix or suffix, renaming based on lookup table, or adding labels. 

Many of these can be automated by leveraging some basic macro variables and using sashelp.vcolumn/dictionary.column table. 

If you've never used the dictionary tables navigate to the sashelp library and take a look at .vtable vcolumn tables which have metadata about all your SAS datasets. 

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

If your recoding or doing some sort of calculation you can also use arrays and short references such as 

Array var_list(*) first_var -- last_var ;

this will include all variables from first to last based on variable portion. 

[PGStats]

Assuming you have a list of name equivalents, transform that list into a macro variable which can be inserted in a rename statement:

data names;
length oldName newName $32;
input oldName newName;
datalines;
weight kilos
height inches
age years
name firstName
sex gender
;

proc sql;
select catx("=", oldName, newName) into : rename separated by " "
from names;
quit;

data myClass;
set sashelp.class;
rename &rename;
run;

proc contents data=myClass; run;