I want to calculate Variable label only when Variable is not null.

[sas_clin_usr]

Hi All,

I want to calculate Variable label only when Variable is not null. I am trying to create a User Defined function as below but I am getting compilation error saying:  ERROR: The VLABEL function is only valid in the DATA step. User defined libraries will be searched for a definition of this
function.

PROC FCMP OUTLIB = work.usrfunc.label;
   FUNCTION varlbl(var);
      IF NOT MISSING (var) THEN RETURN (VLABEL(var));
   ENDSUB;
RUN;

I tried using %SYSFUNC as below but I got another error: ERROR: The function VLABEL referenced by %SYSFUNC, %QSYSFUNC, or %SYSCALL cannot be used within the MACRO function/call-routine interfaces.

PROC FCMP OUTLIB = work.usrfunc.label;
   FUNCTION varlbl(var);
      IF NOT MISSING (var) THEN RETURN (%SYSFUNC(VLABEL(var)));
   ENDSUB;
RUN;

Is there nay way to resolve the above errors to make this program work.

[Tom · Accepted solution]

What possible value would there be in such a function?

Just use normal SAS code

IFC(NOT MISSING (var),VLABEL(var),' ')

[sas_clin_usr]

Thank you Tom!

I tried it and it is working form me 🙂

[Reeza]

What do you mean when a variable is null? Is that when all values in that variable are missing?

Or if a single value is missing?

If you show what you have and what you need we can likely help you better, I have a strong suspicion this is an xy problem.

http://xyproblem.info/

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@sas_clin_usr wrote:

Hi All,

I want to calculate Variable label only when Variable is not null. I am trying to create a User Defined function as below but I am getting compilation error saying:  ERROR: The VLABEL function is only valid in the DATA step. User defined libraries will be searched for a definition of this
function.

PROC FCMP OUTLIB = work.usrfunc.label;
   FUNCTION varlbl(var);
      IF NOT MISSING (var) THEN RETURN (VLABEL(var));
   ENDSUB;
RUN;

I tried using %SYSFUNC as below but I got another error: ERROR: The function VLABEL referenced by %SYSFUNC, %QSYSFUNC, or %SYSCALL cannot be used within the MACRO function/call-routine interfaces.

PROC FCMP OUTLIB = work.usrfunc.label;
   FUNCTION varlbl(var);
      IF NOT MISSING (var) THEN RETURN (%SYSFUNC(VLABEL(var)));
   ENDSUB;
RUN;

Is there nay way to resolve the above errors to make this program work.

---

[sas_clin_usr]

Hi Reeza,

In the dataset I have five Flag Columns of numeric datatype. It contains data either 1 or no data(.)

Task is to check if the column is flaged then their labels should be concatenated.

If I use below statement, it will simply concatenate Labels for all the 5 variable irrespective of the data in it.

DATA new;
SET old;
   new_col = catx(', ',VLABEL(var1), VLABEL(var2), VLABEL(var3), 
                       VLABEL(var4), VLABEL(var5));
RUN;

So I though to write a Function as below so that I can pass each column to this function to get Label only when it contains data (doesn't matter what).

And I got the errors as mention in my original post.

(I forgot about function IFC to be honest 😞 ) 

PROC FCMP OUTLIB = work.usrfunc.label;
   FUNCTION varlbl(var); IF NOT MISSING (var) THEN RETURN (VLABEL(var)); ENDSUB; RUN;

DATA new;
SET old;
   new_col = catx(', ',varlbl(var1), varlbl(var2), varlbl(var3), varlbl(var4), varlbl(var5)); RUN;

I have now used IFC function. It is working for me and I am able to achieve what I want.

But I still have this question, how we can use SAS function in  PROC FCMP.

[Tom]

You can use many SAS functions in FCMP.

You cannot use something like VLABEL that only makes sense in a data step.  That is also why you cannot use that function in %SYSFUNC() or PROC SQL.

[sas_clin_usr]

Thank you tom for the feedback!