Range as a variable

[Thyl]

Hi, i have one column named 9-24 . Is there a way to use is in a "keep" statement? I'm new to SAS and all the ways I tried failed as it's considered a range from 9 to 24.

[stat_sas]

Are you trying to import variable from other source into SAS? Can you please show log?

[Thyl]

Just merging 2 datasets.

[stat_sas]

So variable name is 9-24 and this is in SAS dataset?

[Thyl]

yes

[stat_sas]

What is the error message? Variable name does not conform to SAS naming conventions.

[Thyl]

ERROR 214-322: Variable name 19 is not valid

It was imported from excell.

[PGStats]

"9-24" is the label of the imported variable. It is not a valid SAS variable name, so it was replaced with "__24" (two underscores). You can use (keep=__24).

PG

[stat_sas]

If you can change variable name in excel then do that. SAS variable name must begin with a letter (A-Z, either uppercase or lowercase) or an underscore (_).

[Thyl]

Didn't work. I'm using" options validvarname=any" if that helps

[Reeza]

Try 

KEEP '9'n-'24'n.

[Thyl]

ERROR: Not all variables from the list '9'n-'24'n have been found

[Reeza]

Try double dash instead of single dash. If that doesn't work, please post the results from proc contents on your dataset.

proc contents data=have; run;

[Thyl]

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

Keep '19-24'n

Wrap each variable you want to keep in a single quote followed by an n.

'VARIABLE'n