Merging Columns

[mmh]

Hello,
I am a new SAS user.
I want to create a new column showing the non-missing value.
However, when all the column values are missing, the output column will show a missing value too.

I have the following dataset:

data have;
input Company_ID $4. Date1 Date2 Date3 Date4;
informat Date1 Date2 Date3 Date4 date9.;
format Date1 Date2 Date3 Date4 date9.;
cards;
1210 31mar2009 . . .
1210 . 30jun2009 . .
1210 . . 30sep2009 .
1210 . . . .
1210 . . . 31mar2009
;
run;

I am expecting the following output:

Company_ID	Date1	Date2	Date3	Date4	Date_New
1210	31-Mar-09	.	.	.	31-Mar-09
1210	.	30-Jun-09	.	.	30-Jun-09
1210	.	.	30-Sep-09	.	30-Sep-09
1210	.	.	.	.	.
1210	.	.	.	31-Mar-09	31-Mar-09

Thank you in advance for your kind support!

[sbxkoenk · Accepted solution]

Hello,

data have;
input Company_ID $4. Date1 Date2 Date3 Date4;
informat Date1 Date2 Date3 Date4 date9.;
format Date1 Date2 Date3 Date4 date9.;
cards;
1210 31mar2009 . . .
1210 . 30jun2009 . .
1210 . . 30sep2009 .
1210 . . . .
1210 . . . 31mar2009
;
run;

data want;
 set have;
 Date_New = max(of date1-date4);
 format Date_New date9.;
run;
/* end of program */

Koen

[mmh]

Thanks a lot for your kind response!

[Tom]

What value you want when there is more than one non-missing value?

data want;
  set have;
  date_new=min(of date1-date4);
  format date_new date9.;
run;

[mmh]

Hello Tom,
Thank you so much for your reply!
In my dataset, there is no instance where there might be more than one non-missing value.
Thanks for asking 🙂