Keep Statements - text within a field name

[SeandJ]

HI,

Is there a way to modify the keep statement to ensure all field names containing a certain text are output? For example, I have many different balance fields in a dataset which are not part of an array and I would like to keep all fields containing the text 'balance'.

Thanks.

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

It's easy if the fields all start with balance, then you can use balance:

Otherwise you have to pull the variable names from the dictionary tables and create a macro variable to include in your keep statement.

proc sql noprint;

select name into :balance_list separated by " "

from sashelp.vcolumn

where upper(libname)='WORK' and upper(memname)='MY_DATA' and upper(name) like '%BALANCE%';

quit;

data want;

set have;

keep &balance_list;

run;

[SeandJ]

This works very well thanks. On a side point, why do you use the 'upper' function for the column names when the fields are in uppercase already?

[Reeza]

They may be upper cased in your situation but they're not always upper case.