How to tell whether dataset contains a specific column?!

[hellohere]

How to tell whether dataset contains a specific column?! Any way to do it by fetching meta info?! rather than go proc contents?! Need a macro to tell whether dataset contains a specific column or not. If yes, delete column. If not, do nothing.

[pink_poodle]

Yes, this can be done by accessing dictionary tables with proc sql.

[Tom]

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@hellohere wrote:
How to tell whether dataset contains a specific column?! Any way to do it by fetching meta info?! rather than go proc contents?! Need a macro to tell whether dataset contains a specific column or not. If yes, delete column. If not, do nothing.

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So you are going to delete it if it exits?

Sounds like you just need to check out the DKRICOND or DKROCOND option.

You can use that option to suppress any error (or even any warning) if you try to drop a variable that does not exist.

Consider this program:

data want;
  set sashelp.class(drop=X);
run;

Example:

770   %let dkricond=%sysfunc(getoption(dkricond));
771   %put &=dkricond;
DKRICOND=ERROR
772   data want;
773     set sashelp.class(drop=X);
ERROR: The variable X in the DROP, KEEP, or RENAME list has never been referenced.
774   run;

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
WARNING: The data set WORK.WANT may be incomplete.  When this step was stopped there were 0 observations and 0 variables.
WARNING: Data set WORK.WANT was not replaced because this step was stopped.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.03 seconds
      cpu time            0.04 seconds


775   options dkricond=nowarn;
776   data want;
777     set sashelp.class(drop=X);
778   run;

NOTE: There were 19 observations read from the data set SASHELP.CLASS.
NOTE: The data set WORK.WANT has 19 observations and 5 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.02 seconds
      cpu time            0.00 seconds

779   options dkricond=&dkricond;

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

%let go_on=no;

proc sql noprint;
select "yes" into :go_on
from dictionary.columns
where libname = "LIBRARY" and memname = "DATASET" and upcase(name) = "VARIABLE";
quit;

%if &go_on. = yes
%then %do;
/* code */
%end;

If the SQL does not find a matching entry, the macro variable is left untouched.

[AllanBowe]

Is this the macro (function) you are looking for?

https://core.sasjs.io/mf__existvar_8sas.html