alteranative for if else..

[deleted_user]

hi..

I want to replace a whole huge list of if else statements that we currently use with some kind of an efficient way.
any suggessions?

[sbb]

It depends on the construct(s) used in your IF / THEN. It may be that PROC FORMAT along with a PUT function in your assignment statement might work for some, if not all, of your data-values referenced in the expression(s) you have coded.

Other options are SELECT/WHEN/OTHERWISE/END and possibly a hash table approach may work for your SAS application program.

Suggest checking the SAS support http://support.sas.com/ website - also you may want to reply to your post and PASTE some examples of the different / unique coding expressions used.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
Sometimes IF/THEN/ELSE statement usage falls into a category of programming called "table lookup".

These papers contain some good ideas about lookup techniques and efficiency in general:
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi26/p158-26.pdf
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi27/p011-27.pdf
http://www.codecraftersinc.com/pdf/SUNZefficiency.pdf
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi27/p195-27.pdf
http://analytics.ncsu.edu/sesug/2006/SC19_06.PDF
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi31/249-31.pdf
http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings09/037-2009.pdf

cynthia