ERROR 180-322: Statement is not valid or it is used out of proper order.

[duckypooh]

Hello everyone! 

I am a super newbie to SAS and would appreciate your help, in running the code below: 

I want to filter data from the variable: preg_group to include only the miscarriage and normal data, and amongst these data, define new category variables for my BMI and age subsets. 

But when i ran the code, i got this log: 

What is the problem? 

TIA everyone! 🙂 

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

You can't use an IF command outside of a data step. Remove the RUN; after the DATA IMPORT line (because the RUN; statement ends the data step)

[Kurt_Bremser]

Please do not post code and logs as pictures, because it's unnecessary work for you and makes it harder for us to point out the mistakes.

Use the </> button for logs and other text data, and the "little running man" next to it for SAS code. Just copy/paste the text into the windows opened with these buttons.

You have a RUN statement immediately after the SET statement; this creates a step boundary and ends the DATA step. Therefore the next statements appear in "open code" (outside of a data step), where they are invalid. Remove this unnecessary RUN statement.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Improve your coding style by giving each statement its own line, and even more if a statement consists of several elements:

proc import
  out=
  datafile=
  dbms=
  replace
;
sheet = "........";

and so on. This improves the readability of your code, and makes it easier to debug and maintain. Also see Maxim 12.

[ed_sas_member]

Hi @duckypooh 

Two things:

- you can use the IF/THEN statement outside a data step. That's why you get some errors in the log. TO avoid this, remove the "RUN;" just after the SET statement

- another thing is that you need to define a sufficient length fo your categorical variables. Otherwise, they will be set to the length of the first value and it will cause unexpected results (truncation)

Best,

data import;
	set mcdata.import;
	/*run;  <---- remove run; */
	
	if Preg_Group in ('Miscarriage', 'Normal');
	
	
	length BMI_cat $10.; /* <---- set an appropriate length to avoid truncation */ 
	if BMI > 28 then BMI_cat = 'BMI >28';
	else if 19 <= BMI < 23 then BMI_cat = '19 <=BMI <23';
	else  BMI_cat = 'BMI Other';
	
	length Age_cat $10.; /* <---- set an appropriate length to avoid truncation */ 
	if Age <32 then Age_cat = 'Age <32';
	else if Age >= 32 then Age_cat = 'Age >=32';
	
	ln_Progestrone = log(Progestrone_nmol_L);
	
run;