Proc Logistic error responses

[rebecca8]

Hi there - I'm a beginner with SAS (on a Mac) and am trying to use proc logistic - but I keep getting error responses. My code is as below: 

data sasintro.data_clean;

set allpreg;

if qx17 ^=‘ ‘ then do;

Policy=0;

end;

if qx17="Yes" then Policy=1;

if index (qx22, "a") then comp=1;

else comp=0;

run;

proc logistic data=sasintro.data_clean descending;

model comp=Policy/rl;

run;

The log response is as below: 

1 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

72

73 data sasintro.data_clean;

74 set allpreg;

75 if qx17 ^=‘ ‘ then do;

___

388

76

ERROR 388-185: Expecting an arithmetic operator.

ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.

76 Policy=0;

77 end;

___

161

ERROR 161-185: No matching DO/SELECT statement.

78 if qx17="Yes" then Policy=1;

79 if index (qx22, "a") then comp=1;

80 else comp=0;

81 run;

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

WARNING: The data set SASINTRO.DATA_CLEAN may be incomplete. When this step was stopped there were 0 observations and 32 variables.

WARNING: Data set SASINTRO.DATA_CLEAN was not replaced because this step was stopped.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.02 seconds

cpu time 0.02 seconds

NOTE: PROCEDURE LOGISTIC used (Total process time):

real time 0.00 seconds

cpu time 0.00 seconds

ERROR: Variable COMP not found.

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

82 proc logistic data=sasintro.data_clean descending;

83 model comp=Policy/rl;

84 run;

85

86 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

98

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you! 

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

75 if qx17 ^=‘ ‘ then do;
___
388
76
ERROR 388-185: Expecting an arithmetic operator.

You are using "curly" quotes, these do not work inside of SAS. You need to use the straight quotes, which would look like this:

if qx17 ^=' ' then do;

Curly quotes often happen if your code is pasted into SAS from a word-processor or PowerPoint. Don't do this.

Futhermore, please help us out in the future by pasting the log file into the window that appears when you click on the {i} icon. This preserves the formatting of the log and makes it easier for us to read and decipher. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!

[rebecca8]

Thanks! That's funny - I was actually advised to use the curly quotes and had switched from straight ones. Thank you 🙂 

[ballardw]

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@rebecca8 wrote:

Thanks! That's funny - I was actually advised to use the curly quotes and had switched from straight ones. Thank you 🙂 

---

You may want to go back to the source that recommended the curly quotes and see if they actually meant to use that for CODE statements or output appearance in a report.