Why frequency bands jump here and there?

[Mirisage]

Hi Forum,

I have taken the freq distribution of a variable named “income” employing this code (for confidentiality I cannot attach the data set).

data want;

length Income_Range $15;

set have;

if Income_ = . then Income_Range='Missing';

else if Income_   <=0   then Income_Range = '<=0';

else if Income_   <=80 then  Income_Range ='>0 to <=80';

else if Income_   <=100 then  Income_Range ='>80 to <=100';

else Income_Range = '>100';

run;

proc freq data=want;

  tables Income_Range;

run;

Question:

However much I tried, the output table comes with “Income_Range” bands being jumped (meaning there are not in sequence).

Could anyone please let me know any reason for this?

Income_Range	Frequency	Percent	Cumulative	Cumulative
			Frequency	Percent
<=0	82678	5.23	82678	5.23
>0 to <=80	1108529	70.12	1191207	75.35
>100	68658	4.34	1259865	79.69
>80 to <=100	321081	20.31	1580946	100

The sequence of Income_Range column of above table should have been like below.

Income_Range
<=0
>0 to <=80
>80 to <=100
>100

Thank you for any help.

Mirisage

[Reeza]

That's because your variables are now characters and SAS is sorting it according to the character values, so 'alphabetic' order, which makes sense.

Using a format instead of recoding should solve that, if its an option.

[MikeZdeb · Accepted solution]

hi ... use a format (as suggested) or add some spaces ...

<=0

>  0 to <=80

> 80 to <=100

>100   

[Mirisage]

Hi MikeZdeb and Reeza,

Thank you very much for both of your responses.

Now I understand what has happened. Thanks Again.

Regards

Mirisage