deleting row with missing observation

[wschnell1]

Hi,

I have a large number of columns and rows.

I want to delete a row of data if one specific variable is missing (FIRMID) which is a numerical variable

I tried the following but it didn't seem to work

data want;

     set have;

     if FIRMID = . then delete;

     run;

Any help appreciated.

[Jagadishkatam]

ideally it should work, the code of yours is fine.

Please try

data want;

     set have;

where firmid ne . ;

run;

Thanks,

Jagadish

[Patrick]

Your code looks fine to me. Is FIRMID character or numeric?

You could try instead:

data want;

     set have;

     if missing(FIRMID)  then delete;

     run;

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

While few people use them, there are special missing values that are different from the usual numeric missing value.  Technically, this would be safer:

data want;

set have;

if firmid <= .Z then delete;

run;

Notice there is a . before the Z (.Z, not just Z).

It's not likely that this is what is happening here, but it is really the only way to explain an otherwise simple program.

[Haikuo]

Astounding beats me, yes, the safest way to rule missing value is to do something as suggested: missing() function:

data test;

input FIRMID;

cards;

1

2

.

._

.A

.B

.Z

;

DATA MISS1;

SET TEST;

if FIRMID = . then delete;

run;

DATA MISS2;

SET TEST;

IF MISSING(FIRMID) THEN DELETE;

RUN;

PROC PRINT DATA=MISS1;RUN;

Obs    FIRMID

  1 1

  2 2

  3 _

  4 A

  5 B

  6 Z

PROC PRINT DATA=MISS2;RUN;

Obs    FIRMID

1 1

2 2

Haikuo