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Jeg123
Calcite | Level 5

I would like to bin a column with some numeric values, for some reason missing values are treated as negative in a CASE WHEN

statement, but works fine is a WHERE statement. Why? 

 

 

data test;
infile datalines delimiter=',';
input data;
datalines;
-1
0
1
.
;RUN;

/* Why is missing treated as negative */ PROC SQL; CREATE TABLE temp AS SELECT data , CASE WHEN data LT 0 THEN 'Negative' WHEN data EQ 0 THEN 'Zero' WHEN data GT 0 THEN 'Posiive' WHEN data EQ . THEN 'Missing' ELSE 'No Match' END AS data2 FROM test ;QUIT;

/* Works as expected */

PROC SQL; SELECT * FROM test WHERE data EQ . ;QUIT;

 

7 REPLIES 7
PaigeMiller
Diamond | Level 26

Missing in SAS is considered to be less than any negative number, so when you test to see if DATA is less than 0, this is true, missing is less than zero, and your CASE clause never gets to the part where it tests for missing; hence the missing should return the value "Negative".

--
Paige Miller
Jagadishkatam
Amethyst | Level 16

Please include the below step

data ne . and data LT 0

 

PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE temp AS
	SELECT
		data
	,	CASE 
			WHEN data ne . and data LT 0 THEN 'Negative'
			WHEN data EQ 0 THEN 'Zero'
			WHEN data GT 0 THEN 'Posiive'
			WHEN data EQ . THEN 'Missing'
			ELSE 'No Match' END AS data2
	FROM
		test
;QUIT;
Thanks,
Jag
Kurt_Bremser
Super User

Slightly reorder and simplify your case logic:

data test;
infile datalines delimiter=',';
input data;
datalines;
-1
0
1
.
;
run;

proc sql;
create table temp AS
select
  data,
  case 
    when data eq . then 'Missing'
    when data lt 0 then 'Negative'
    when data eq 0 then 'Zero'
    when data gt 0 then 'Positive'
  end as data2
from test
;
quit;

proc print data=temp noobs;
run;

Result:

data    data2

 -1     Negative
  0     Zero    
  1     Positive
  .     Missing 
novinosrin
Tourmaline | Level 20

HI @Jeg123  You could consider using formats (user defined format using proc format. Ideal for reuse 

novinosrin
Tourmaline | Level 20

Hi @Jeg123  If you really want in proc sql. I would do

WHEN .<data<0  THEN 'Negative'

as that is very convenient to see and edit. 

 

Applying the same in your example-

 

data test;
infile datalines delimiter=',';
input data;
datalines;
-1
0
1
.
;RUN;/* Why is missing treated as negative */

PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE temp AS
	SELECT
		data
	,	CASE 
			WHEN .<data<0  THEN 'Negative'
			WHEN data EQ 0 THEN 'Zero'
			WHEN data GT 0 THEN 'Posiive'
			WHEN data EQ . THEN 'Missing'
			ELSE 'No Match' END AS data2
	FROM
		test
;QUIT;

 

data data2
-1 Negative
0 Zero
1 Posiive
. Missing

 

 

ballardw
Super User

If this is part of a real problem needing information of negative, positive or 0 perhaps the SIGN function is sufficient. Though instead of returning text it returns values of -1 for negative, 0 or +1 for positive and missing when the value is missing.

 

data test;
   infile datalines delimiter=',';
   input data;
datalines;
-1
0
1
.
-34
3.14156
;
RUN;

PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE temp AS
	SELECT
		data
	  ,sign(data) AS data2
	FROM
		test
   ;
QUIT;
Tom
Super User Tom
Super User

As others have pointed out SAS treats missing values as less than any actual number.  

Also note that SAS has 28 different missing values and your code is only testing for one of them.

It is probably simplest to just test for missing first in the CASE statement.

proc sql;
create table temp as
 select
   data
 , case
     when missing(data) then 'Missing'
     when data lt 0 then 'Negative'
     when data gt 0 then 'Posiive'
     when data eq 0 then 'Zero'
     else 'Impossible Value'
   end as data2
 from
  test
;
quit;

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