mean of several variables

[lone0708]

Hi All,

I want to calculate the mean of blood pressures in my dataset. I have a variables for each blood pressure (bp1, bp2,bp3 etc). It is variable how many blood pressure each participant have (they can have up to 20 or more). 

data have;

input ID bp1 bp2 bp 3;

datalines;

1 145 120 125

2 130 . . 

3 125 125

;

run;

data want;

input ID bp1 bp2 bp3 mean;

datalines;

1 145 120 125 130

2 130 . . 130

3 125 125 125

;

run;

[PeterClemmensen · Accepted solution]

If all the variables share a common prefix like in your sample data, you can do this

data have;
input ID bp1 bp2 bp3;
datalines;
1 145 120 125 
2 130 .   .   
3 125 125 .   
;


data want;
   set have;
   mean = mean(of bp:);
run;

Result:

ID bp1 bp2 bp3 mean
1  145 120 125 130
2  130 .   .   130
3  125 125 .   125

[LinusH]

The most straightforward way is to transpose your data so you have one row for each test. 

Then you can use a standard procedure to calculate the mean (PROC SQL, MEANS etc).