SQL script to assign id based on data fields

[superjohn]

I'm trying to write an iterative script in sas that would see assign an id to a customer based on whether they've met conditions in my lookup table. Normally, I would accomplish this with a sql join, but I need a procedural script that would see whether they've met the conditions that exist in the lookup, then assign them that id. Some attributes are not required or available, so a sql join would not work, since the join would require that all conditions be met. See the example, below:

customers table

customer attr1 attr2 attr3
jerry    a     r     g
tom      q     e     h
cindy    c     f     j

id_lookup table

id attr1  attr2  attr3
1  a      (null) g
2 (null)  e      h
3  c      f      (null)

final output

customer id
jerry    1
tom      2
cindy    3

Note that jerry had a match on attr1 and attr3, so met the conditions, thus was assigned 1. The script moves on to the next customer to assign an id procedurally, starting at 1 and moving on in ascending order.

in sql, I would write

select a.customer
   , b.id
from customers a
join id_lookup b 
   on ( a.attr1 = b.attr1
   and a.attr2 = b.attr2
   and a.attr3 = b.attr2 )

However, some attributes are not available and since a customer might match many ids, may not be assigned the right once, since the customer should be assigned the id with the lowest value that they qualify for.

Is there a script in sas that can accomplish this? 

[RW9]

You can put that SQL (assuming it works) into a proc sql statement - SAS has ANSI SQL embedded in it:

proc sql;
  create table want as
select a.customer
   , b.id
from customers a
join id_lookup b 
   on ( a.attr1 = b.attr1
   and a.attr2 = b.attr2
   and a.attr3 = b.attr2 );
quit;

Now I think your problem is bigger than that.  You say they can have many lookup values, what about overlap, i.e. Jerry and Tom both have E attribute?  Generally speaking I would, and this would also help the SQL, normalise both datasets, so something like:
CUSTOMER  ATTR_NO  RESULT

001              1               a

001              2               r

...

You can then eradicate rows with nulls.  Check for duplicates.  Then take the first result which happens (i.e. the lowest), then merge the two together.

[superjohn]

awesome. thanks! This totally worked!

[Ksharp · Accepted solution]

Perl Regular Expression.

data customer;
input customer $ attr1 $ attr2 $ attr3 $;
pid=catx(',',attr1,attr2,attr3);
cards;
jerry    a     r     g
tom      q     e     h
cindy    c     f     j
;
run;

data lookup;
input id attr1 $  attr2  $ attr3 $;
pid='/^'||tranwrd(catx(',',attr1,attr2,attr3),'(null)','.*')||'$/';
cards;
1  a      (null) g 
2 (null)  e      h
3  c      f      (null)
;
run;
proc sql;
select b.*,a.customer,a.pid as a_pid
 from customer as a right join lookup as b 
  on prxmatch(b.pid,strip(a.pid));
quit;