Resolving numeric condition

[aviben]

Hello,

Certainly a trivial question: how do I put an %if condition with numeric criteria? For example, I want the code to process if the number of obs in a dataset is greater than 6

%if &nbObs>6 %then %do;

     ....         

%end;

The problem is that &nbObs resolve to "23" which resolve incorrectly the condition. Tried with %eval without success

Thanks

[Jagadishkatam]

Hi,

did you try to create the macro variable using proc sql, this will create the numeric macro variable with the number of observations. please try the below code

proc sql;

     select count(*) into : obs from dataset_name;

quit;

%put &obs;

Thanks,

Jag

[Robert_Bardos]

Jag is right insofar as you should try to get an unquoted (ie. numeric) value for &nbObs.

There is a solution however even when &nbObs has the value (quotes being part of the value)  "23"

  %if  %eval ( %sysfunc(dequote(&nbObs)) > 6 ) %then %do ;

This first removes the quotes from &nbObs and then does the %eval part.

But as mentioned initially (giving credit to Jag): try to get a pure numeric value for &nbObs first.

Regards

Robert

[Jagadishkatam]

Thank you Robert, yes indeed your solution is also very useful.

Regards,

Jag

[Astounding]

Although I'm not able to test it at the moment, you could probably get rid of %eval from the earlier suggestion:

%if %sysfunc(dequote(&nobs)) > 6 %then %do;

One thing you should NOT do is add double quotes to match:

%if &nobs > "6" %then %do;

It will run, but will make the wrong comparison.  Because of the double quotes, it will make a character comparison.  Since 2 < 6, the comparison will be false.

Better yet, listen to the suggestions to get rid of the double quotes from &nobs and you won't have to worry about complicated comparisons.

[Haikuo]

Agree with Astounding. %if will automatically conduct  %eval operation at the background.

Haikuo