How to implement nested loop structures

[Mikeyjh]

Hi all,

I would like to implement a 2 level nested loop in SAS. Please see SAS pseudo code below.

I have a list of subject numbers held in the dataset "subjects" and a list of dataset names held in dataset "datatypes". Each of the datatypes referenced by the dataset "datatypes" would be an individual dataset.

Data _null_;

     set subjects;

     pt = subjid;

     Data _null_;

          set datatypes;

          dt = datatype;

          * print all the data for the current pt and dt, eg, "select * from dt where subjid = pt"

      Run;

Run;

Please note that its the code for the 2 level nested loop that I need and not the how to implement the specific code within the loops.

Thanks for your help.

[PGStats]

I think it can be done this way, using a single MACRO variable (untested) :

proc sql;

select distinct dataType into :inCmd separated by " " from datatypes;

quit;

data allDatatypes;

set &inCmd indsname=dataType;

run;

proc sql;

select S.subjId as pt, D.dataType as dt, /* and whatever you need */

from subjects as S inner join allDataTypes  as D on  S.subjId=D.subjId;

drop allDataTypes;

quit;

PG

[Mikeyjh]

Thanks for your reply PG.

Can you explain what your allDataTypes statement does especially the "indsname=dataType"?

[PGStats]

The first step creates a list of the dataset names.

The second step reads and concatenates all those datasets in the list and creates a new variable called dataType to keep the name of the dataset that contributed each observation.

The third step is a query that joins the Subjects dataset with the allDataTypes dataset by pairing observations with the same subjId.

Hth.

PG

[Tom]

Why do you feel the need to nest it?

Sounds like you want to make a patient profile report.

One way is to create a macro that reports one patient then generate a call to the macro for each patient.

%macro patprofile(ptid);

%local dslist ds i ;

%let dslist = dm ae ;

%do i=1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&dslist));

  %let ds=%scan(&dslist,&it);

  proc print data=&ds ;

    where ptid=&ptid;

  run;

%end;

%mend patprofile;

filename code temp;

data _null_;

  set patlist;

  put '%patprofile(' ptid ');';

run;

%inc code / source2 ;

[Astounding]

It's not clear how general this needs to be, but here's another approach.

data _null_;

   set datatypes;

   call execute('data ' || strip(datatype) || '; set subjects; run;');

run;

If the requirements become really involved, this might get cumbersome.  But it might do the job that you require.  Here's another thought as well that begins the same as PGStats' suggestion:

proc sql noprint;

   select distinct strip(datatype) into : dataset_list separated by ' ' from datatypes

quit;

data &dataset_list;

   set subjects;

run;

Of course, this doesn't work if you need a more involved analysis, such as a PROC FREQ for each data set.  But if that might be needed, there are definitely ways to loop through each data set name in a list.  See how close you come to what you need with this much, and we can always embellish later.

Good luck.