Got error msg saying "expecting a ;" when ive checked multiple times and am not missing any

[jkinkade7]

Apologies if I've put this in the wrong place, I'm completely new here but this seemed like the best forum based on the introductory channels' description.

Basically I am working on a class assignment and trying to create two different subsets of my data: one with only renters included and one with only homeowner's included. My code that's not functioning is below, and I can supply more if needed:

data RentersData;
	set FullData2;
	delete if RENTGRS=0;
run;

Basically I am trying to drop all observations from my data where gross rent payments (RENTGRS) are equal to 0 so that only renters are included. However, I keep getting an error message that says ERROR 79-322: Expecting a ;. 

Adding a screenshot below of the error message just in case there's any important detail I may have ignored

I hope this is descriptive enough, I can provide additional info if necessary. Thank you

[Modeller · Accepted solution]

I believe you need to switch your "delete" & "if" statements around. See solution 1 below.

I have included solutions 2 &3 that achieve the same result using different methods as well.

[jkinkade7]

Thank you so much, Solution 1 worked perfectly. I appreciate the additional solution approaches as well because they look like a cleaner solution than what I was opting for, I think they will help me a lot in the future

[Tom]

The DELETE statement does not allow any other text.  That is why SAS says you are missing a semicolon.  Your text looks like it was meant to be two statements.  A DELETE statement and subsetting IF statement.

delete;
if RENTGRS=0;

But that would delete every observation.

If you want to conditionally execute the DELETE statement then you can use an IF/THEN statement and code the DELETE statement as the statement to execute when the condition is true.

if RENTGRS=0 then delete;

If instead you want to use a subsetting IF statement you will need to reverse the logic of condition since now you want to specify the condition for when to NOT delete the observation.

if RENTGRS ne 0;