Do and subsetting if statement

[jbear]

I ran into this piece of code and I wonder if the DO loop approach is purposeful:

Approach:

data want;

     set have;

          if var_a = 'Tom' then do; /*Do loop needed?*/

               if var_a = 'Johnny'  then var_b = 'Johnny Walker';

               else if var_a = 'Don' then var_b = 'Don Julio';

          end;

run;

Equivalent(?):

data want;

     set have;

               if var_a = 'Johnny'  then var_b = 'Johnny Walker';

               else if var_a = 'Don' then var_b = 'Don Julio';

run;

I just need some confirmation if the DO loop is necessary at all here...

[DBailey · Accepted solution]

I can't see it doing anything....especially since the only time it would be evaluated is when var_a='Tom"....which of course means that neither of the two other expressions would be true.