Merging wide and long datasets

[joannahh]

Hello,

I am trying to merge one wide and one long data set. Both datasets have information on the same participants which is identified by the variable ID. 

Once I sort the datasets by ID, can I merge them from their original data formats? Or do I have to make both datasets into the same format (both long or both wide files) in order to merge them?

I greatly appreciate your help!

Best,

Joanna

[Reeza]

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@joannahh wrote:

Once I sort the datasets by ID, can I merge them from their original data formats? Or do I have to make both datasets into the same format (both long or both wide files) in order to merge them?

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You can merge them without changing them to the same structure, as long as the output will be what you want. It's really dependent on what you want as output. 

[joannahh]

Thank you so much for your fast response! 

So the following syntax is what I used and my output is in a long file (which is what I wanted): 

"data merged; merge wide long(in = a) ; by ID; if a; run;"

I'm not sure if I am providing sufficient information for a response but I was wondering if getting a long-file output is what you would expect from the above syntax. 

Thank you again for your help!

[mkeintz]

By "long", I presume you mean a dataset with possible repeats of the by variable ID.  And by "wide" do you mean one observation per ID?

If so then your program will be a "LONG left join WIDE on long.id=wide.id" in proc sql syntax.