SAS decimal points unexpected result

[yangx]

Dear Support,

I have a very simple program which used a number to divide group, but the result is unexpected. I cannot find the reason for this. Could you please help me with this? Please see the program below:

data t1;

    input id a b;

    cards;

1 56 50.4

2 25 22.5

3 55 49.4

;

run;

data t2;

    set t1;

    c=((a-b)*100/a);

    group=0;

    if 0<=c=10 then group=1;

    if c>10 then group=0;

run;

For id 1 and 2, c has value of 10, so group should equal to 1, however, group has 0 and 1. 

Any help is appreciated. thanks.

Xiumei

[ballardw]

did you intend

 if 0<= c <=10 then group=1;

instead of

 if 0<=c=10 then group=1;

in the latter if c is not equal to 10 then the c=10 bit is false and group is not set to 1

[yangx]

Thanks for your reply, but  "if 0<= c <=10 then group=1" is doing the same thing, doesn't work. 

[Reeza]

Your IF statment is likely missing a < sign.

    if 0<=c=10 then group=1;

    if c>10 then group=0;

Should likely be:

    if 0 <= c <= 10 then group=1;
    else if c > 10 then group=0; * not needed since it was set already to 0;

You also may want to round the number to avoid issues.

This may help:

data t1;
    input id a b;
    cards;
1 56 50.4
2 25 22.5
3 55 49.4
;

run;

data t2;

    set t1;

    c=((a-b)*100)/a;
	d = round(c, 0.001);

    group=0;

    if 0 <= c <= 10 then group=1;
    else if c > 10 then group=0; * not needed since it was set already to 0;

	if 0 <= d <= 10 then groupD=1;
    else if d > 10 then groupD=0; * not needed since it was set already to 0;
    format c d 8.3;
run;

---

@yangx wrote:

Dear Support,

I have a very simple program which used a number to divide group, but the result is unexpected. I cannot find the reason for this. Could you please help me with this? Please see the program below:

data t1;

    input id a b;

    cards;

1 56 50.4

2 25 22.5

3 55 49.4

;

run;

data t2;

    set t1;

    c=((a-b)*100/a);

    group=0;

    if 0<=c=10 then group=1;

    if c>10 then group=0;

run;

For id 1 and 2, c has value of 10, so group should equal to 1, however, group has 0 and 1. 

Any help is appreciated. thanks.

Xiumei

---

[s_lassen · Accepted solution]

You obviously have an error in your program. The statement

    if 0<=c=10 then group=1;

resolves to 

  if 0<=c and c=10;

So I assume that you meant

  if 0<=c<=10 then group=1;

The problem you have, apart from that, is that SAS floating points are base 2, not base 10. This means that a decimal which is not a (negative) power of 2 is not represented exactly. So, for ID = 1 you have 50.4, which is not exactly representable in base 2. And, obviously, while the C value displays as 10, it is not exactly 10. If you subset your output data with "where c=10", you will see that your first observation is not included.

You can use ROUND to get around this problem, e.g.:

c=round((a-b)*100/a,0.0001);

[yangx]

Thank you for your reply and explanation. I tried to use round function and it works. So based on your explanation, whenever decimal number is produced, we should use round function, otherwise, the result might be unexpected. 

yangx