combining data

[VS]

Hi, we recieve monthly data and create YTD data. Before i just had a code  e.g. "DATA YTDdat; SET dJan dFeb ... dDec;RUN;". If there was no month mentioned in a SET statement, it would give me an error message, but will append all existing months all the same. Now I am creating essentially the same code, but it gives an error message e.g. "ERROR: File ONL_DEC15.DATA does not exist" but does not create a file with existing months. My question: is there a way to create YTD data automatically, depending on whether the data for a particular month exists?

[pearsoninst · Accepted solution]

Here You go ...

data jan;
input X;
datalines;
1
1
;
data Feb;
input X;
datalines;
2
2
;
OPTIONS  NODSNFERR;
data want;
set jan HELLOOOO Feb;
/* "HELLOOOO" data dont exists */
run;

[VS]

Thanks a lot! Have to learn more about OPTIONS.

[RW9]

As with anything else, I would not recommend putting "data" in the table name or table headers.  Consider your approach, what happens if you get updates for a month, what happens the next year etc.  Would it not be far easier to work with one large dataset which has another column:
DATE_RECIEVED   Other variables...

Then each upload, you insert the new data with a given date.  Then your programs can be written to just point to one dataset, and use the date variable to group.  Far easier than messing around with filenames etc.

[VS]

Thank you. This is very valuable suggestion. i've got several projects which will benefit from this approach.