Picking an observation from a group

[sai_ch]

Hello Everyone,

The Have dataset is sorted by ID and Ranks. For each group, by ID, I am trying to pick the first observation for which the difference is less than equal to 12. For example, for ID 0001, the Want dataset has the secon observation. Would really appreciate if anyone could help me out.

Thanks

Have				Want
ID	Rank	Diff		ID	Rank	Diff
0001	2	20
0001	3	8		0001	3	8
0001	4	44
0001	5	38
0002	2	18
0002	4	3		0002	4	3
0002	5	6
0002	12	30
0003	1	11		0003	1	11
0003	2	23
0003	3	47
0003	5	2

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

Create a flag that indicates if you've found the record. So your logic becomes less than or equal to 12 AND flag is not set.

data want;
set have;
by id;
retain flag;
if first.id then flag=0;

if diff<=12 and flag=0 then do;
output;
flag=1;
end;

run;

[sai_ch]

Thanks Reeza for the solution.