Match Observations

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:

As another example of a lookup technique, my tendency would be to make a user-defined format from the file with the name1-name3 and then to use that format when reading data file A to make the NEWNAME variable.

Something like this:

data fmt_examp(keep=fmtname start end label);
  length start $50 end $50 label $50 ;
  retain fmtname '$namef' type 'C';
length name1 name2 name3 $50;
infile datalines dlm=',' dsd;
input name1 $ name2 $ name3 $;
label=name1;
start=name1; end=name1;
output;
start=name2; end=name2;
output;
start=name3; end=name3;
output;
datalines;
"International Business Machines","IBM","IBM Corp."
"Apple","Apple Inc.","AAPL"
"Google LLC","GOOGL","Google"      
;
run;

proc format cntlin=fmt_examp fmtlib;
run;

data a;
length name newname $50;
input id $ name $;
newname = put(name,$namef.);
cards;
01        IBM
02        Apple
;
run;

proc print data=a;
title 'Using format for lookup';
run;
 
 

(There's always more than 1 way to do things in SAS.)

Cynthia