Finding records with a specific value for a specific variable

[Primavera]

Hi there,

I am fairly new to SAS and I am using SAS 9.4. 

I am working with a data set (hospital inpatient records) that has about one hundred thousand records and about forty variables. Each patient has their unique study ID. Some of the variables are birth-date, admission-date, separation-date, 15 variables for ICD codes of diagnoses of each patient, dead or alive flag, etc. One of the variables is total_length_of_stay and documents for the datasheet say "invalid data will be recorded as -1".  My question is how can I see which study IDs have -1 in their total_length_of_stay. Right now the only way I can do this is with use of a flag:

data myhosprecords;

set myhosprecords;

if total_length_of_stay = -1 then invalidlength=1;

else invalidlength=0;

run;

data invalidlengthofstay validlengthofstay;

set myhosprecords;

if invalidlength=1 then output invalidlengthofstay;

else output validlengthofstay;

run;

Is there a simpler way without creating a flag and two other datasheets to find those individuals whose total_length_of_stay = -1?

Thanks,

[Shmuel]

Do it in one step:

data invalidlengthofstay validlengthofstay;
 set myhosprecords;
	if total_length_of_stay = -1 
	   then output invalidlengthofstay;
           else output validlengthofstay;
run;

[ChrisNZ]

>how can I see which study IDs have -1

How do you want to "see"?  Creating a table seems the best way.

data BAD;
   set MYHOSPRECORDS;
   where TOTAL_LENGTH_OF_STAY = -1 ;
 run;

Even better you don't need to create table, you can directly run a report using any procedure, by just adding the same WHERE clause.

[Primavera]

Thank you very much. Your suggestion is very neat and efficient. 

By seeing I meant seeing the result in the "Results Viewer" window without needing to create the new file "BAD". I  looked into proc print but that did not seem like what I wanted.

>Even better you don't need to create table, you can directly run a report using any procedure, by just adding the same WHERE clause.

Could you please explain this a bit further?

Thanks,

[Shmuel · Accepted solution]

proc print data=myhosprecords(where=(total_length_of_stay = -1)); run; 

use the where statement to select required observations. 

[Primavera]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

[ScottBass]

---

Could you please explain this a bit further?

Thanks,

---

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lestmtsref/63323/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n1xbr9r0s9veq0n...

You're welcome.

"Results Viewer" window

DMS or EG?  Both support a where clause.