Null columns

[HeatherNewton]

If i have series of program that produce series of tables containing production data, instead of masking some sensitive fields, if i just make these data null, e.g. have all names become null in  the same column, is all programs still run as before given this name field is not key to any join table or a factors in any important calculation 

[Tom]

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@HeatherNewton wrote:

If i have series of program that produce series of tables containing production data, instead of masking some sensitive fields, if i just make these data null, e.g. have all names become null in  the same column, is all programs still run as before given this name field is not key to any join table or a factors in any important calculation 

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Is there a question there somewhere?

If you want to make a copy of the data and set some variables to missing then just use the CALL MISSING() function.

For example if you wanted to blank out NAME and AGE from SASHELP.CLASS you could do this:

data want;
  set sashelp.class;
  call missing(of name age);
run;

[SASKiwi]

BTW NULL is a database concept where database columns store special null values which are not the same as missing or blank values. SAS columns only contain missing values, not null.

[LinusH]

From syntax perspective, yes.

But what is the point of keeping them at all if they are not contributing to the result?

[ballardw]

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@HeatherNewton wrote:

If i have series of program that produce series of tables containing production data, instead of masking some sensitive fields, if i just make these data null, e.g. have all names become null in  the same column, is all programs still run as before given this name field is not key to any join table or a factors in any important calculation 

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If I understand your question the answer could be "maybe". Depends on how you intrepret or specify "important".

If you are using the variables as part of By group or Class statement then all missing values within a By group/ Class group with multiple variables will be the same "value" with the non-missing values. Depending on the code actually used missing values may be included or know (look for option MISSING in some procedures). If procedures us Class statements then typically missing values of the Class statements will result in records being excluded from use in the procedure.

As is often the case, you might be better off just trying your process with and without the values in the data set and compare the results.