Indexing and Sorting

[maroulator]

I have a dataset with three variables (var1, var2, var3). How can I go about indexing the dataset by var1, but making sure that var2 is also sorted in descending order?

Thanks in advance.

[djbateman]

What do you mean by indexing by var1?  Do you mean to know which observation is observation #1, #2, etc. but still sorting on var2?  In other words, var2 will be in order, but the index for var1 will not necessarily be in any order?  If that is what you mean, then try this little snippet:

proc sort data=dsn;

      by var1;

run;

data dsn;

      set dsn;

   index=_n_;

run;

proc sort data=dsn;

      by descending var2;

run;

[djbateman · Accepted solution]

I just had thought.  Your data may not necessarily have to be sorted by var1 before it is indexed.  I just assumed that you would index it based on a certain order.  If your data is already in the order that you want, then you can skip the first sort procedure.

[maroulator]

Your answer is exactly what I needed.