How to read a dataset for a value range and output the var name, obs num and value

[CharlesC]

Hello,

  Good afternoon-- I am trying to write a program to automate outlier detection.  I need to produce a list of values > 3 or < -3 along with its variable name and obs number.

I used proc standard to standardize my variables:

data=work.prepstandard;

set work.dataset (drop= id x1 x2 x3 x4 x5);

run;

PROC STANDARD DATA=work.prepstandard MEAN=0 STD=1 OUT=zstandards;

VAR x6 x7 x8 x9 x10 x11 x12 x13 x14 x15 x16;

run;

Then tried running the following array, but it doesn't work:

DATA work.outliers;

    SET zstandards;

       ARRAY x

_NUMERIC_;

         DO i=1 TO DIM(x);

           IF x > 3 or x <-3 THEN DO;

               obsNum= _N_;

             OUTPUT;

          END;

       END;

run;

Did I do something wrong in the array, or is this the wrong way to go about it?  Thanks for helping me out...  I sincerely appreciate it!

-Charles

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

It should work, but you don't explain how it doesn't work so I can't comment beyond that.

However, it won't identify the variable that is the outlier and if there are multiple outliers in a specific observation, though I suppose if you're automating then you don't care too much about that.

Here's a sample that does what you're asking using SASHELP.CARS.  I didn't drop the lead variables though you could easily.

If you have SAS/STAT licensed you can also look into proc stdize.

proc standard data=sashelp.cars mean=0 std=1 out=zstandards;

var msrp--length;

run;

data outliers;

    set zstandards;

    array x(*) _numeric_;

    do i=1 to dim(x);

    if abs(x(i))-3>0 then do;

        obsnum=_n_;

        variable=vname(x(i));

        value=x(i);

        output;

    end;

    end;

    keep obsnum variable value;

run;

[CharlesC]

It worked, thank you very much.  I really like the way you set up the IF-THEN statement with the abs() to capture both the negative and positive values-- nicely done!!

I appreciate your help!

-Charles