Can some one please help me with editing a data file?

[acb07010]

Hello,

I merged two data files from the CDC's NHIS 2012 data files ( the adult and disability files). The merge was successful however I cannot do anything with the merged data file to edit the data. I can print out the data and run freqs and means but I can not change any of the variables. For example, when I try to recode a variable or create a new variable, SAS deletes all of the variables in the data set and or says that the variable is uninitialized. If anyone can lend a hand I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!!!

[Tom]

Sounds like you are forgetting to pull in the data, like you are missing the SET statement.

data want ;

  set old;

  newvar = oldvar/10;

run;

[acb07010]

thank so much for replying ....however i did use the set command to set the permanent merged file i created to a temporary file.  This is what I had in my code:

LIBNAME nhisproj "P:\Project";

DATA nhisproj.NHIS2012perm;

      set TMP1.NHIScombined2;

      KEEP SEX     RACERPI2    AFD_FLG DOINGLWA     AGE_P BMI

            FLA1AR          MOB_2R         MOB_3F       

            FLSOCL                             

            AFLHCA18     AFLHCA17 UB_SS    

            AFLHCA13    ALHCA14A AFLHCA15; /*Subset variables*/

RUN;

PROC PRINT DATA=NHISproj.NHIS2012perm; /*Print the small subset*/

RUN;

and this works fine but then when i try to do anything with the variables like recode them or create new variables it does not work.

[Patrick]

The KEEP statement applies to the output data set (nhisproj.NHIS2012perm). So make sure that any new variable you create is listed in the KEEP statement.

I suggest that you omit the KEEP statement while you're developing code.

[pronabesh]

You have created a permanent SAS file called NHISproj.NHIS2012perm.

Make sure when you perform data transformation you assign the correct permanent SAS path:

data NHISproj.NHIS2012perm;

     set NHISproj.NHIS2012perm;

     < transformation code >;

run;

[pronabesh]

Also, did you see any error in the SAS log?

[ballardw]

I recommend that you NOT reuse the input and output data for this if you are recoding actual values of original variables as you'll end up having to redownload/combine data if you make an error.

I have seen this done to a data set reducing the number of categories such as:

if x>4 then x=4;

Else if x in (3,4) then x=2;

else if x =2 then x=0;

While modifying code affecting other variables and making changes, the value of X eventually becomes 0 or 1 when it should be 0,1,2 or 4.

Better is to

Data newrecodes;

     set basedata;

<recodes>

run;

Also, Formats are often much more effecient for many grouping tasks than creating new variables.

[art297]

I think you will get better advice if you post the code that isn't doing what you expect.