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GreggB
Pyrite | Level 9

 

I want to use proc format on the values below. Example:  1.0-1.9 is 'Pre-functional'. I have to format them as character due to other values such as P1,P2, etc.

 

will this work?

 

proc format;

value $ engproffmt

'1.0 - < 1.9' = 'Pre-functional';

 

 

1.0-1.9

2.0-2.9

3.0-3.9

4.0-4.9

5.0-5.9

6.0

P1

P2

P3

P4

8

9

W

X

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
ballardw
Super User

You may want to run this code and see if the formatted values match what you would expect with your data.

Normally in a numeric format the -<  means "up to but not including" so 1.9999 would be "pre-functional" and 2 would be "something else". Note that characters use the active sort sequence (ASCII or EBCDIC depending on environment) and does a character-by-character left-to-right comparison for range membership. Some things may not quite what you expect such as values of 1 and 2 (note no decimal present)

proc format library=work;
value $ engproffmt
'1.0' -< '2.0' = 'Pre-functional'
'2.0' -< '2.9' = 'Something else'
'3.0' -< '3.9' = 'YadaYada'
;
run;
data example;
   input x $;
/* so you can see the unformatted value
in proc print below*/
y=x; datalines; 1.0 1.01 1.1 1 1.A 10 1.9 1.90 1.93 2 2. 2.0 ; run; proc print data=example; format x $engproffmt.; run;

Explicit values may be better if known.

 

View solution in original post

4 REPLIES 4
Astounding
PROC Star

Programming ranges within a character format is tricky and prone to error.  As a general rule, avoid it whenever possible.  For this limited case, you could use:

 

value $engproffmt

'1.0' - '1.9' = 'Pre-functional'

'2.0' - '2.9' = 'Next level description';

 

VDD
Ammonite | Level 13 VDD
Ammonite | Level 13

I do not believe what you have will work with the sample data you have provided.

You may have to list each stringed value.

here is a nice link to formatting.

 

http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi27/p056-27.pdf

 

 

ballardw
Super User

You may want to run this code and see if the formatted values match what you would expect with your data.

Normally in a numeric format the -<  means "up to but not including" so 1.9999 would be "pre-functional" and 2 would be "something else". Note that characters use the active sort sequence (ASCII or EBCDIC depending on environment) and does a character-by-character left-to-right comparison for range membership. Some things may not quite what you expect such as values of 1 and 2 (note no decimal present)

proc format library=work;
value $ engproffmt
'1.0' -< '2.0' = 'Pre-functional'
'2.0' -< '2.9' = 'Something else'
'3.0' -< '3.9' = 'YadaYada'
;
run;
data example;
   input x $;
/* so you can see the unformatted value
in proc print below*/
y=x; datalines; 1.0 1.01 1.1 1 1.A 10 1.9 1.90 1.93 2 2. 2.0 ; run; proc print data=example; format x $engproffmt.; run;

Explicit values may be better if known.

 

Reeza
Super User
Is your input data mixed format? If so, I suspect some IF THEN statements are likely more efficient and less error prone. Create a generic else to catch issues though. Use ANYALPHA or NOTDIGIT to test if a value is all numeric.

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