Using unknown array dimention to store value from one array to another

[ab12nov]

Hi can you help edit my code, I'm using below user defined format and informat to get my value in array, to store values of cards from "value" to "q" variable.

When i'm using declared varables array as shown below it is working fine, but when i'm changing it to unknown dimention it giving no data in the dataset.

array value{3} value1 value2 value3;
array q{3}$ q1 q2 q3;

*Informat;
Proc format;
invalue $ informat
1 = 'True'
2 = 'False'
3 = 'None'
4 = 'Invalid';
run;

*Format;
proc format;
value $ format
'True' = 101
'False' = 102
'None' = 103
'Invalid' = 104;
run;

data ds_user1;
infile cards;
retain id value1 value2 value3 q1 q2 q3;
informat value1 value2 value3 $ informat.;
input id$ value1 value2 value3;
array value{*} _numeric_;
array q{*} _character_;
do i=1 to dim(value);
	q{i} = value{i};
end;
format value1 value2 value3 $ format.;
drop i;
cards;
a 1 2 3
b 2 4 1
c 3 1 4
d 3 3 2
;
run;

Thanks in advance,

Ayushmaan

[Patrick]

@ab12nov

There are that many issues in your code that I really don't know where I would have to start.

Given your sample source data, why don't you tell us what you want to achieve. 

That's your sample data (Remark: OP changed data after I've posted below).

  datalines;
a 1 2 3b 
2 4 1c 3 
1 4d 3 3 2
;
run;

Please show us how your desired result should look like.

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

Well, you can do it in a number of ways, for instance totalling how many there are from metadata and storing in a macro variable.  Personally I prefer to use Base SAS, in this case proc transpose.  Beinig able to move from normalised data to transposed data and back again is a fundamental modelling technique you should know, and by using this you can avoid the need to "know" how many elements up front, here is an example:

proc format;
  invalue $inf
  1 = 'True'
  2 = 'False'
  3 = 'None'
  4 = 'Invalid';
run;

*Format;
proc format;
  value $res
  'True' = 101
  'False' = 102
  'None' = 103
  'Invalid' = 104;
run;

data ds_user1;
  infile datalines;
  informat value1 value2 value3 $inf.;
  input id $ value1 value2 value3;
datalines;
a 1 2 3
b 2 4 1
c 3 1 4
d 3 3 2
;
run;

proc transpose data=ds_user1 out=t;
  by id;
  var value:;
run;

data t;
  set t;
  _name_=tranwrd(_name_,"value","q");
  col2=put(col1,$res.);
run;

proc transpose data=t out=norm;
  by id;
  var col2;
  id _name_;
  idlabel _name_;
run;

data want (drop=_name_);
  merge ds_user1 norm;
  by id;
run;

Do note I replaced he use of informat and format as names deliberately, it is really not a good idea to use reserved words for names.