Conditionally creating an Index

[buechler66]

Hi. I'm trying to conditionally create an index, but only if it doesn't already exist. Can anyone help me with this? This attempt isn't working for me.

		data _null_;
			set sashelp.vmember (where=(Libname='WORK' and memname='FINALDATA%unquote(&zip5)'));
			if upcase(index) = 'NO' then do;
				PROC DATASETS;
				MODIFY FinalData%unquote(&zip5);
				INDEX CREATE imb_code /unique;
			end;
		RUN;

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

Well, this will give you a start, but I don't know what that macro variable is or why it is there at all:

data _null_;
  set sashelp.vmember (where=(Libname='WORK' and memname='FINALDATA%unquote(&zip5)'));
  if upcase(index)='NO' then call execute('proc datasets; modify finaldata'||&zip5.||'; index create imb_code /unique; run; quit;');
run;

[jklaverstijn]

---

@RW9 wrote:

data _null_;
  set sashelp.vmember (where=(Libname='WORK' and memname='FINALDATA%unquote(&zip5)'));
  if upcase(index)='NO' then call execute('proc datasets; modify finaldata'||&zip5.||'; index create imb_code /unique; run; quit;');
run;

---

My 2 cents on this: this code will not create an index if any index exists. It is not specific to index imb_code. So there may still be room for improvement. But kudo's to the use of call execute(). Very underestimated and often misunderstood.

- Jan.

[buechler66]

Thank you. I appreciate your time.