using proc compare while pairing idnumber of two datasets

[alepage]

Many of our oracles tables will be changed in few weeks.  Up to now, we have test table are available but, the number of observations is low compare to the original table.

I would like to compare the old table with the test table but I want to paired the idnumber of the old table with the idnumber of the test table then compare the other variables.

Is there a nice way to do that with proc compare?

Regards,

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

It would depend on just what you are looking for from the comparison. Proc compare is often not the best choice when there is a significant difference in the number of records between the two data sets.

You should describe exactly what you are looking for from the comparison.

If you are trying to determine if values from the test data set differ from those in the base data only for the idnumbers in the test data set then the approach would be to select the records from the base data set based on those in the test set and then use proc compare. Something like:

Proc sql;

    create table baseid as

    select b.*

    from (select distinct idnumber from test) as a

            left join

            base as b

            on a.idnumber = b.idnumber

   ;

run;

If there were other specific types of questions about the two sets then you may need to provide more details.