if then else

[Dylans15]

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody could help me with a problem I encountered with if, then, else statements.

data sasdata.new;
set sasdata.auditvars3;
if A1=11001101 then AI2=.;
else AI2=A1;
run;

How would I do it if I needed A1=1001101 and A1=1100010 to both equal "." when put into the new A2 column.

thanks 

[mkeintz · Accepted solution]

The IF clause tests a logical condition, which is not restricted to a simple condition like

if A1=11001101 then ...

It can be a compound condition constructed with AND's, OR's and parentheses, such as:

if (A1=11001101 or A1=1100010) then ...

You also can have more than a single ELSE following an initial IF:

if a1=11001101 then AI2=.
else if a1=1100010 then AI2=.;
else AI2=A1;

And I should have added that this is a "flow-control" capability of every computer programming language that I have seen - not just SAS.

[ballardw]

And if you have more values the IN operator is available to avoid writing a bunch of "OR" clauses;

The IN operator tests a single variable against a list of explicit values:

if A1 in (11001101 1100010) then

is equivalent to

if (A1=11001101 or A1=1100010) then

If you later need to add a third or fourth or … item just place them inside the ()  with the existing values.

There are also some short cuts for dealing with sequential integer values:  var in (3:10 27.4) would test for all the integers from 3 through 10 and the value 27.4.

Character values must be inside quotes and lists do not work but this potentially saves a great many OR's in the code.