Switch Column Values

[PhillipSherlock]

Hi all,

I'd like to set a conditional statement such that if the first character of column "B" is a number, the values of columns "A" and "B" should be switched.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Phil

[sbb]

Suggest using a DATA step where SAS assignment statements use the ANYDIGIT along with a H_xxxx (hold variable) for your conditional assignment.

What is unspecified here is whether your objective is on an SAS observation level basis or if only one occurrence is different, then switch all observations -- there you might consider a DATA step to test values, then a conditional PROC DATASETS to effect a change on the entire dataset.

35758 - New "ANY" functions in SAS® 9 and later releases can search for various types of characters ...

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi, without data it's not entirely clear what you want. I read this as you want the "new" B value to become the value for A, IF the first character of "old B" value is a number/digit and you want to switch the A value to the "new" B?

Like this:

Is this what you meant? If so, assuming the data (WORK.FAKEDATA) shown in the first PROC PRINT, this program using ANYDIGIT and SUBSTR does the swap. You can look in the doc to find out what those functions do, as well as looking up the RENAME= option. Of course, you may need to tweak the program based on the real names and lengths of your real variables. The Final dataset is called WORK.SWITCH.

Cynthia

data switch;
  set fakedata(rename=(b=oldb));
  if anydigit(substr(oldb,1,1)) = 1 then do;
     b = a;
     a=oldb;
  end;
  else do;
     b = oldb;
  end;
run;

proc print data=switch;
  title 'Switched data (can drop OLDB var after verifying)';
  var a b oldb;
run;
title;