convert all numeric variables to charater at once

[chennupriya]

CA	Item	CA1	SAL
12356	NO	856	YES
34527	YES	245	2.56
56789	1	123	3.2

hI ,

i Have a dataset like above and i am trying to transpose the dataset but i have colums which are only numeric and other columns which are alphanumeric so how can i convert all variables (i have hundreds of variables ) to character at once so that i can use sigle proc transpose for the dataset

Can anyone pls help Thanks

[Reeza]

What are you looking to get as output?

Remember a column in SAS can hold only one type of variable, a character or a numeric variable. 

[chennupriya]

I am looking to have CA and CA1 also to be character but i have 100's of columns in my dataset so how can i chnage all columns into character

Thanks

[Reeza]

You can reference all numeric columns using _numeric_, but you need to know how many because you need to create new variables to hold the character values.  If you're transposing, it maybe better to transpose and convert at once. 

data want;
	set have;
	array nums(*) _numeric_;
	array chars(*) _character_;

	do i=1 to dim(nums);
		variable_name=vname(nums(i));
		value = put(nums(i), 8.);
		output;
	end;

	do i=1 to dim(chars);
		variable_name=vname(nums(i));
		value = chars(i);
		output;
	end;;
run;

[rogerjdeangelis]

Convert all numeric variables to character at once

Can also do using datastep _numeric_  array but may need to rename
R can also do this for you

https://goo.gl/zpYfS4
https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/convert-all-numeric-variables-to-charater-at-once/m-p/314934


HAVE
===

Up to 40 obs WORK.HAVE total obs=3

Obs      CA     ITEM    CA1    SAL

 1     12356    NO      856    YES
 2     34527    YES     245    2.56
 3     56789    1       123    3.2


 -- CHARACTER --
ITEM           C    8       NO
SAL            C    8       YES
TOTOBS         C    16      3


 -- NUMERIC --
CA             N    8       12356
CA1            N    8       856

WANT  ( I did not convert CA because it looks like a key?)
===========================================================

Up to 40 obs WORK.HAVXPOXPO total obs=3

Obs      CA     ITEM    CA1    SAL

 1     12356    NO      856    YES
 2     34527    YES     245    2.56
 3     56789    1       123    3.2


 Variables in Creation Order

#    Variable    Type    Len

1    CA          Num       8
2    ITEM        Char     12
3    CA1         Char     12
4    SAL         Char     12


WORKING CODE
============

    proc transpose data=have out=havxpo;
    by ca;
    var _all_;
    run;quit;

FULL SOLUTIONS
==============

* Create some data;
* FYI - I compress out blanks with one function key;
data have;
input
CA Item $ CA1 SAL $;
cards4;
12356 NO 856 YES
34527 YES 245 2.56
56789 1 123 3.2
;;;;
run;quit;

FULL SOLUTION
=============

proc transpose data=have out=havxpo;
by ca;
var _all_;
run;quit;

/*
Up to 40 obs WORK.HAVXPO total obs=12

Obs      CA     _NAME_        COL1

  1    12356     CA              12356
  2    12356     ITEM     NO
  3    12356     CA1               856
  4    12356     SAL      YES
  5    34527     CA              34527
  6    34527     ITEM     YES
  7    34527     CA1               245
  8    34527     SAL      2.56
  9    56789     CA              56789
 10    56789     ITEM     1
 11    56789     CA1               123
 12    56789     SAL      3.2
*/

proc transpose data=havxpo out=havxpoxpo(drop=_name_);
by ca;
id _name_;
var col1;
run;quit;

/*
Up to 40 obs WORK.HAVXPOXPO total obs=3

Obs      CA     ITEM    CA1    SAL

 1     12356    NO      856    YES
 2     34527    YES     245    2.56
 3     56789    1       123    3.2
*/

[mkeintz]

Here's an alternative:  run two proc transposes, one for numerics (naming vars NUM1-NUMn)  and one for character (naming vars CHAR1-CHARn), where n is the number of observations in the source data set.  Each of the result files will get the same number of variables (n,  excluding the new variable _NAME_).

Then just SET them both, and convert NUM1-NUMn to character form in CHAR1-CHARn.  Drop the NUM: vars.  No need to determine how many variables of character vs numeric there are:

proc transpose data=sashelp.class out=tn  prefix=num;
run;

proc transpose data=sashelp.class  out=tc  prefix=char;
  var _character_;
run;

data want;
  set tn (in=in_n) tc;
  array n {*} num: ;
  array c {*} char: ;
  if in_n then do I=1 to dim(n);
    c{I}=put(n{I},8.);
  end;
  drop num: I ;
run;