PROC FORMAT

[GreggB]

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

[Astounding]

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]

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 · Accepted solution]

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]

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.