Get the combinations with do loop

[sas_newbie3]

Say we have 4 letters--"A", "B","C","D". Now I want to get the combinations, the result should be 16 ELEMENTS.

AA
AB
AC
AD
BA
BB
BC
BD
CA
CB
CC
CD
DA
DB
DC
DD

Thank you.

[collinelliot]

data want;
do i = 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D';
do j = 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D';
var = cats(i, j);
output;
end;
end;
run;

[sas_newbie3]

Hi,

I want the result can be an arrary format, so I can retrieve the first element and second item etc.

So for example, for AA, it is an array. The first item of the array is A, the second item of array is A also.

[collinelliot]

I'm really sorry, but I don't understand. The code I provided gives you the results you specified. The i and j give you the two separate portions, if that's what you mean. 

[art297 · Accepted solution]

Not sure what you're asking for. Is it something like:

data want (keep=first: second:);
  array first(16) $;
  array second(16) $;
  do i = 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D';
    do j = 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D';
      cell+1;
      first(cell)=i;
      second(cell)=j ;
    end;
  end;
run;  

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

[ballardw]

---

@sas_newbie3 wrote:

Hi,

I want the result can be an arrary format, so I can retrieve the first element and second item etc.

So for example, for AA, it is an array. The first item of the array is A, the second item of array is A also.

---

Then go back to your orginal post and change the "example" data to what you actually want. Your example implied one record per two character concatenated string.

And your description would result in 32 values not 16:

A,A,A,B,A,C,A,D,B,A,B,B,B,C,B,D,C,A,C,B,C,C,C,D,D,A,D,B,D,C,D,D

data junk;
   array x {32} $1.;
   counter=0;
   do i= 'A','B','C','D';
      do j= 'A','B','C','D';
         counter+1;
         x[counter]=i ;
         counter+1;
         x[counter]=j ;
      end;
   end;
   output;
   drop counter i j;
run;