Fill missing values with the first non-missing value in a row.

[sasecn]

Hello,

I have a data set like below:

a b c d e

.  .  .  .  .

.  1 2 3 4

.  .  2 3 4

0 1 2 3 4

I would like to fill the missing values with the first non-missing value in each row. For each row, if all missing or there is no missing, there is nothing to do. But for all other cases, fill the missing value(s) with the first non-missing value. The result that I am looking for is:

a b c d e

.  .  .  .  .

1 1 2 3 4

2 2 2 3 4

0 1 2 3 4

Thanks in advance!

[novinosrin]

data want;

set have;

array t(*) a--e;

do _n_=1 to dim(t);

if t(_n_)=. then t(_n_)=coalesce(of t(*));

end;

run;

Untested as i am away from my SAS software

[novinosrin]

Now tested

data have;
input a b c d e;
datalines;
.  .  .  .  .
.  1 2 3 4
.  .  2 3 4
0 1 2 3 4
;

data want;
set have;
array t(*) a--e;
do _n_=1 to dim(t);
if t(_n_)=. then t(_n_)=coalesce(of t(*));
end;
run;

[sasecn]

Thanks, that is great! I am sure that will help me for other questions! But why my modified code is not working on char values? 

[sasecn]

Thanks for the quick reply. I still have problems. I actually have the values which are not numeric (i posted using numeric values to make it easy, but i guess i made a wrong decision). The exact data is like this:

location1 location2 location3 location4

(missing)   ON           NB            AB

(missing) (missing)    AB            ON

(missing) (missing) (missing) (missing)

ON           NB            AB            ON

The result will be:

location1 location2 location3 location4

ON            ON           NB            AB

AB             AB            AB            ON

(missing) (missing) (missing) (missing)

ON           NB            AB            ON

I tried to modify your code by replacing the var names and replacing . to ' ' (i.e. numeric missing to char missing). I got some error message like:

NOTE: Character values have been converted to numeric values at the places given by:
(Line):(Column).
159:39
NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by:
(Line):(Column).

.

.

.

ght that 

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

for char values use coalescec

data want;
set have;
array t(*) location1-location4;
do _n_=1 to dim(t);
if missing(t(_n_)) then t(_n_)=coalescec(of t(*));
end;
run;

[sasecn]

That works! Thanks a lot! I should do more research on that.