Keeping columns for the last 12 months

[hk2013]

I have a data set where the Columns are labeled Month181, month182 , month183, .............., month1810 , month1811, month1812, month191, month192

I want to be able to select the last 12  months for example i want the cols Month1810 to Month199

Month1810    Month1811  month1812   month191  month192   month193    

1                           0                  0                     0              1               0

0                            1                 0                    0                 1             1

1                            1                 0                   1               1                  0

0                            1                0                   1              1                   1

[PaigeMiller]

keep month1810--month199 /* add other variables you want to keep as well */;

in a SAS data step will get you there.

I point out that this is a very poor arrangement of the data for most purposes, and you'd be much better off (for most purposes) with a long data set rather than a wide data set.

[Reeza]

If you'd used 1801, 1802, 1803 etc it would have been easier. Is this structure the original structure of the data? If not, if you every have it in a long structure, it's much easier to work with in that structure.

[imadjabir]

Hello,

Why don't you convert your file into Excel and then delete the observations you don't need.

[Reeza]

Most likely because that's a manual solution that doesn't scale when you do it every month and multiple times. It allows the room for errors to be introduced.