Appying two formats to a variable based on another variable

[whateverwhateve]

I have one variable that's values are either 'state' of 'country'. State meaning its a state in the united states. Country meaning it is outside of the united states.

My second variables values are state or country codes. This is the variable I want to format with two different formats based on what my first variable is.

Basically, if my first variable has a value of 'state' then I want to apply my state format to the second variable. And if my first variable has a value of 'country' then I want to apply my country format to the second variable.

As an example, if my first variable has a value of 'state' and my second variable has a value of 'TX' then the state format would make that value in my second variable read 'TEXAS'. But if  first variable has a value of 'country' and my second variable has a value of 'TX' then the country format would make that value in my second variable read 'TURKMENISTAN'.

I know this next line of code is incorrect but I think it tells you what I'm trying to do

if var1='state' then var2 $state. else var2 $country.;

I'm using Enterprise Guide 7.1

Thanks,

Kelli

[Reeza]

I think you’ll need to create a new variable in this case with the formatted value.

if var1=‘state’ then desc = putc(var2, ‘$state_fmt’);

else desc = putc(var2, ‘$country_fmt’);

[Tom]

You can't do that.  No more than you have some observations where the variable is numeric and others where the same variable is character.  The format attached to a variable is an attribute of the variable, not of a particular observation.  You will need to create a new variable to hold the decoded value.

So if you have data like:

data have ;
  length code $10 code_type $10 ;
  input code code_type ;
cards;
TX state
USA country
;

If you have formats named $STATE and $COUNTRY you could even just use the value of CODE_TYPE to generate the format to use.

data want ;
  set have ;
  length description $100 ;
  description=putc(code,cats('$',code_type,'.'));
run;

[whateverwhateve]

Thanks Reeza & Tom for your quick replies! I figured I was going to have to create another variable and you confirmed that for me. I very much appreciate your examples. That is exactly what I'll use. Thanks again.