Number of observations are smaller then expected

[jimmychoi]

Hi, here's my simple code:

data banks;
input name $  rate;
datalines;
FirstCapital 0.0718
DirectBank 0.0721
VirtualDirect 0.0728
;
run;

data newbank;
do year = 1 to 3;
put year;
set banks;
capital + 5000;
end;
run;

It gives 1 observation with 4 variables.

I do understand 4 variables - year, name, rate, capital but not 1 observation.

year it repeating 3 times - and per a iteration banks ( 3 observations) are loaded into.

Thus should it have 3 times * 3 observations = 9 observations in total?

P.S: 1 really really basic question. The code above doesnot fully embrace all character of 'name' field.

I have tried length name 15 but doesn't work. Is there any other way?

[art297]

The first problem can be overcome by using an informat. The second requires some changes to the structure of your code. e.g.:

data banks;
  informat name $14.;
  input name rate;
  datalines;
FirstCapital 0.0718
DirectBank 0.0721
VirtualDirect 0.0728
;
run;

data newbank;
  set banks;
  do year = 1 to 3;
    capital + 5000;
    output;
  end;
run;

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

data newbank;
do year = 1 to 3;
put year;
set banks;
capital + 5000;
end;
run;

If there is no explicit output statement in a data step, the data step compiler adds an implicit one at the end of the code, so it would look like

data newbank;
do year = 1 to 3;
put year;
set banks;
capital + 5000;
end;
output;
run;

In the first iteration of the data step, the do loop reads all 3 observations in the source data set, and the end state of the do loop is written to newbank. In the second iteration of the data step, it encounters a EOF condition in set banks in the first iteration of the do loop, and terminates without further output.

@art297's solution corrects all that by moving the set statement out of the loop (therefore only one read per datastep iteration), and adding the explicit output.