choosing the first date and last date in a dataset

[coba]

I am using the code suggested in one of the answers as I want to get the first and last date of a country.

data get_first_and_last;

  set master_table;

  by ID Date;

  if first.date or last.Date then output;

run;

However, I still get the dates in between and I'm replacint ID by country

I have the following observations

country      date

countrya     01jan00

countrya     01feb00

countrya     01feb00

countrya     01mar00

etc ...

countrya     01nov11

How do I get only the country and  01jan00 and 01nov11? Is there any other way. I have a lot of observations  and variables and I only choose the country and the date that is why I have repeated dates.

Thank you

[art297]

Change two lines in your code:

  by ID;

  if first.ID or last.ID then output;

[Linlin · Accepted solution]

data have;

informat date date7.;

format date date7.;

input country $ date;

cards;

countrya     01jan00

countrya     01feb00

countrya     01feb00

countrya     01mar00

countrya     01nov11

countryb     01jan00

countryb     01feb00

countryb     01feb00

countryb     01mar00

countryb     01nov11

;

proc sort; by country date;

data want;

  set have;

  by country;

  if first.country or last.country;

run;

proc print; run;

[coba]

This is perfect! exactly what I needed.