adding exception to proc sort nodupkey by_all_

[SpecBurns]

Hi there, 

I'm trying to clean some data by deleting observations that were entered twice - however, these were assigned unique identifiers that I need to keep for linkage purposes.   Essentially I want to run a nodupkey and sort by all variables with the exception of the observation ID's.  Is there a way to add an exception to the by_all_ command?  Something like by_all_ except obs_id ?

e.g., 

proc sort data = original_data out = dups_removed nodupkey;

     by_all_;

run;

Thanks!

Spec

[Tom · Accepted solution]

No.

But it is not hard to generate the actual list.

proc transpose data=original_data(drop=obs_id obs=0) out=names; var _all_; run; 
proc sql noprint; select nliteral(_name_) into :names separated by ' ' from names; quit;
proc sort data=original_data out=dups_removed nodupkey;
  by &names;
run;

[SpecBurns]

Thanks!