How orden columns alphabetically?

[amcacr]

I have one data set

Like this,

ORDER	ADDRE:HOME_1	TELEPONE:HOME_1	TELEPONE:FAX_1	ADDRE:HOME_2	TELEPONE:HOME_2	ADDRE:HOME_3
1	A	11	22	B	22	C
2	B	22	33	C	33	D
3	C	33	44	D	44	E
4	D	44	55	E	55	F
5	E	55	66	F	66	G
6	F	66	77	G	77	H
7	G	77	88	H	88	I
8	H	88	99	I	99	J
9	I	99	110	J	110	K
10	J	10	121	K	121	L

Is there a way to automatically have the columns in the data set order as follows?

ORDER	ADDRE:HOME_1	ADDRE:HOME_2	ADDRE:HOME_3	TELEPONE:HOME_1	TELEPONE:HOME_2	TELEPONE:FAX_1
1	A	B	C	11	22	22
2	B	C	D	22	33	33
3	C	D	E	33	44	44
4	D	E	F	44	55	55
5	E	F	G	55	66	66
6	F	G	H	66	77	77
7	G	H	I	77	88	88
8	H	I	J	88	99	99
9	I	J	K	99	110	110
10	J	K	L	10	121	121

Thank you for your help!!!!

Allan

[Mit]

The easiest way is:

export the variables to Excel and then sort it . Then run the following code

%let var= <copy and paste the sorted variable names from Excel here>;

data want;

     retain &var.;

set have;

run;

[Mit · Accepted solution]

with your data;

data want;

retain ADDRE:HOME_1 ADDRE:HOME_2 ADDRE:HOME_3 ORDER TELEPONE:FAX_1 TELEPONE:HOME_1 TELEPONE:HOME_2;

set have;

run;

OR

%let var= ADDRE:HOME_1 ADDRE:HOME_2 ADDRE:HOME_3 ORDER TELEPONE:FAX_1 TELEPONE:HOME_1 TELEPONE:HOME_2;

data want;

retain &var.;

set have;

run;

             

ADDRE:HOME_1

ADDRE:HOME_2

ADDRE:HOME_3

ORDER

TELEPONE:FAX_1

TELEPONE:HOME_1

TELEPONE:HOME_2

[amcacr]

Thank you,

But I have a problem with that solution, in some cases the number of columns it would be diferent, not always are the same number of columns. Thats my problem.

[PaigeMiller]

Untested code

proc contents data=have out=_cont_ noprint;

run;

proc sql;

     select distinct name into :var separated by ' ' from _cont_ where lowcase(name)^='order' order by name;

quit;

data want;

     retain order &var;

     set have;

run;

Which brings up the interesting question ... why do this? None of the procedures used by SAS care what order the columns are in; and if you are doing this for presentation, then procedures such as PROC PRINT and PROC REPORT let you explicity state what order the variables are to appear in.

[amcacr]

Thanks.

Works perfectly!!!!