if ^ a then do

[tianwang]

I'm not sure what the "^" mean here: if ^ a then do...

does it mean "if ^= a then do"?

thanks

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

In this context, ^ means "not".  The evaluation of "a" is considered to be false when a is either missing or zero.  Any other value gets evaluated as true.  So "^ a" gets evaluated as true whenever a is missing or zero.  Any other value gets evaluated as false. Putting it all together:

if ^ a then do;

The statements that follow get performed whenever the variable A is either missing or zero.

[kiranv_]

^ is not

so ^= not equal to

[tianwang]

thanks!

[Reeza]

For future reference the list of operators is here:

https://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrcon/69852/HTML/default/viewer.htm#p00iah2thp63bmn1lt2...