Change column order in output

[deleted_user]

Hi

No idea if this is the right place to put this - please let me know where if not.

New to SAS (new gig, new tools). I am trying to adjust a macro that takes input from a delimited, variable length file and spits it into a SAS output file. I want to select a subset of columns and change the order. How might I do this please? Below indicative of what I am trying to do. I would like the output columns to be THATCOLUMN and then THISCOLUMN. Any help very gratefully received.

%macro test_macro (indset =, outdset =);
data &outdset (keep = THATCOLUMN THISCOLUMN);
infile &indset delimiter = '|' dsd truncover lrecl = 1500;
input THISCOLUMN : 9.
THATCOLUMN : 9.
ANOTHERCOLUMN : 9.;
run;
%mend test_macro;

Thanks

[Olivier]

Just add a LABEL statement for your variable between the DATA and the INFILE statement ; in that LABEL, give the names of the columns in the order that you want them at the end...

%macro test_macro (indset =, outdset =);
data &outdset (keep = THATCOLUMN THISCOLUMN);
LENGTH THATCOLUMN = "That column" THISCOLUMN = "This column" ;
infile &indset delimiter = '|' dsd truncover lrecl = 1500;
input THISCOLUMN : 9.
THATCOLUMN : 9.
ANOTHERCOLUMN : 9.;
run;
%mend test_macro;

[deleted_user]

Brilliant thanks Oliver. Obviously, you gave the right answer but got distracted when you wrote out the code (LENGTH rather than LABEL).

I appreciate that a lot 🙂