Simple array

[New_to_SAS]

Hi,

I have a simple array that I want to use, but I did not drop the (i) at the end of the array since I thought it will be the same number as the elements in the array. What I notice though is that it adds a 1 to the number of elements in the array. Do you know why that is happening, and is the a way I can have it reflect the number of the elements in the array?

Here is the array

Array demography [*] $ C_sex D_DOB D_AGE E_POPULATION;
do i=1 to dim(demography);
if demography(i) ne " " then count_demo+1;
end;

I would like i to reflect that there are 4 elements in this array. Is that posible, or should I continue to use a counter?

Thanks

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

I think you just need to use the DIM function.

Array demography [*] $ C_sex D_DOB D_AGE E_POPULATION;
number_of_elements=dim(demography);

[RW9]

i has nothing to do with the array.  i is an incrementor.  The process for the do loop: do i=1 to 4;

Is;

set i to 1

Is i > end of loop

No - run code inside

set i to i + 1

Is i > end of loop 

No - run code inside

As you can see each time the loop enacts i is incremented, the loop does not run the code enclosed with the loop block when i > 4, however i still gets incremented by 1, as otherwise i would never be greater than the end of loop.  What is it your actually trying to achieve (post full example) as:

data have;
  set sashelp.class;
  if _n_=4 then weight=.;
  if _n_=8 then sex="";
run;

data want;
  set have;
  result=nmiss(age,weight,height) + cmiss(sex);
run;

Is a simpler solution.

[New_to_SAS]

"number_of_elements=dim(demography); " worked. Thank you for the responses.