How to go about Merging data sets with different variable names but with similar data.

[rebelde52]

Hello, 

I merged two data sets (covid) and (ocwwp) and produced table below. My problem is that I have 2 "dates" variables (covid) is "date" and (ocwwp) is "Sample_date". Additionally I have a location variable that are (covid) is "area" and (ocwwp) is "Wwtp_Name" and they both have the "Orange" observation. I basically to use the dates data from both (covid) and (ocwwp) for a time series graph with my "case" and "concentration" variable. But I guess I just dont know how to go about it now.

Do I just make my date variables into 1 variable? 

Below is my code how I merged the data 

data pmerge;
merge mycovid.ocovid
	  mycovid.ocwwp;
run;
	

[Kurt_Bremser]

Instead of merging, stack the datasets and rename the "common" variables:

data want;
length ds dsname $41;
set
  mycovid.ocovid
  mycovid.ocwwp (rename=(sample_date=date wwtp_name=area))
  indsname=ds
;
dsname = ds;
run;

The additional variable dsname will contain the source.