multiple if then else statements using a do loop

[PaulaC]

I have five different treatments for the patients in my dataset. 

I am trying to create a prior treatment variable that has the following response options: surgery+other treatment, immunotherapy+other treatment, radiotherapy+other treatment, chemotherapy+hormonal treatment, surgery, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal treament, none of listed treatments.

I would like my data to look similar to the data below:

Pt #  surgery  immunerx  radiotherapy  chemotherapy  hormonal                    priorrx

1        yes          yes             no                  yes                   no            surgery+other treatment

2        yes          no                yes               no                     no            surgery+other treatment

3        yes          no               no                 no                     no                           surgery

4         no           yes             yes               yes                   no                 immunerx+other treatment

5         no           yes            no                 no                     no                    immunerx

6        no            no               yes              no                    no                     radiotherapy

and so on...

I have a variable for surgery, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy with response options of Yes/No.

I was trying to create a do loop to cover all the different permutations and combinations.  I am getting a note and errors in the log.  I feel like it must be something simple, but can't figure out what I am doing wrong.  In my code the else if statements are colored purple.  I know that something is wrong based on that also.

Please find the portion of the log below with the errors and notes:

2705 *-----------------;
2706 *calculate priorrx;
2707 *-----------------;
2708
2709 if surgery='Yes' or immunerx='Yes' or
2709! radiotherapy='Yes' or chemotherapy='Yes' or hormonal='Yes'
2709! then do;
2710 if surgery='Yes and (immunerx='Yes' or
--------------------
-------------------
-------------------
---------------
-----------------
---------------------------
49 49
49
49
49
49
---
388
---
76
2710! radiotherapy='Yes' or chemotherapy='Yes' or
2710! hormonal='Yes') then priorrx='surgery+other treatment';
2711 else if surgery='Yes' and (immunerx='No' and
2711! radiotherapy='No' and chemotherapy='No' and
2711! hormonal='No') then priorrx='surgery';
-----------------
49
NOTE 49-169: The meaning of an identifier after a quoted string
might change in a future SAS release. Inserting
white space between a quoted string and the
succeeding identifier is recommended.

ERROR 388-185: Expecting an arithmetic operator.

ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.

2712
2713 else if surgery='No' and immunerx='Yes' and
----------------
---------------------
-------------------
---------------
-----------------
----------------------------
49 49
49
49
49
49
2713! (radiotherapy='Yes' or chemotherapy='Yes' or
2713! hormonal='Yes') then priorrx='immunotherapy+other
2713! treatment';
2714 else if immunerx='Yes' and (radiotherapy='No' and
2714! chemotherapy='No' and hormonal='No') then
------------------
49
2714! priorrx='immunotherapy';
NOTE 49-169: The meaning of an identifier after a quoted string
might change in a future SAS release. Inserting
white space between a quoted string and the
succeeding identifier is recommended.

2715
2716 else if immunerx='No' and radiotherapy='Yes' and
--------------------
---------------------
---------------
-----------------
--------------------------------
49 49
49
49
49
2716! (chemotherapy='Yes' or hormonal='Yes') then
2716! priorrx='radiotherapy+other treatment';
2717 else if radiotherapy='Yes' and (chemotherapy='No'
2717! and hormonal='No') then priorrx='radiotherapy';
-----------------
49
NOTE 49-169: The meaning of an identifier after a quoted string
might change in a future SAS release. Inserting
white space between a quoted string and the
succeeding identifier is recommended.

2718
2719 else if radiotherapy='No' and chemotherapy='Yes' and
--------------------
----------------
----------------
--------------------------------
49 49
49
49
2719! hormonal='Yes' then priorrx='chemotherapy+hormonal
2719! treatment';
2720 else if chemotherapy='Yes' and homronal='No'

----------------
49
2720! then priorrx='chemotherapy';
NOTE 49-169: The meaning of an identifier after a quoted string
might change in a future SAS release. Inserting
white space between a quoted string and the
succeeding identifier is recommended.

2721
2722 else if chemotherapy='No' and hormonal='Yes' then
----------------
----------------
49 49
2722! priorrx='hormonal treatment';
NOTE 49-169: The meaning of an identifier after a quoted string
might change in a future SAS release. Inserting
white space between a quoted string and the
succeeding identifier is recommended.

2723
2724 else priorrx='none of listed treatments';
2725
2726 end;
2727

--
49
NOTE 49-169: The meaning of an identifier after a quoted string
might change in a future SAS release. Inserting
white space between a quoted string and the
succeeding identifier is recommended.

Any help that could be provided would be greatly appreciated.  I am using SAS 9.4 TS Level 1M3.

Thanks. 

[Reeza]

Post the actual code used please.

[Astounding]

The immediate problem is that you are missing a closing quote here:

2710 if surgery='Yes and

Sometimes when you fix one problem, it reveals another.  We'll have to wait and see.

[PaulaC]

thank you. That solved the error message. I ran the code again and it looks like my code worked except the situation where all the treatments are no. Those have a blank for the priorrx field.

[PaulaC]

Please find the actual code below:

data analysis;
retain blind studyid usubjid siteid racegr1 racegrp country cntrygrp age visceral nonvisceral;
length totcomorbid racegrp cntrygrp $20 visit combined_site totmetsites $200;
set analysisallp1 analysisallp2;
where itt='Yes';

if comorbid=0 then totcomorbid='0';
else if comorbid=1 then totcomorbid='1';
else totcomorbid='2 or more';

if ^missing(orgnnuminv) then do;
if orgnnuminv = 0 or orgnnuminv=1 then totmetsites = '0 to 1';
else if orgnnuminv>1 then totmetsites='2 and above';
end;
else totmetsites = 'Missing';

*-----------------;
*calculate priorrx;
*-----------------;

if surgery='Yes' or immunerx='Yes' or radiotherapy='Yes' or chemotherapy='Yes' or hormonal='Yes' then do;
if surgery='Yes' and (immunerx='Yes' or radiotherapy='Yes' or chemotherapy='Yes' or hormonal='Yes') then priorrx='surgery+other treatment';
else if surgery='Yes' and (immunerx='No' and radiotherapy='No' and chemotherapy='No' and hormonal='No') then priorrx='surgery';

else if surgery='No' and immunerx='Yes' and (radiotherapy='Yes' or chemotherapy='Yes' or hormonal='Yes') then priorrx='immunotherapy+other treatment';
else if immunerx='Yes' and (radiotherapy='No' and chemotherapy='No' and hormonal='No') then priorrx='immunotherapy';

else if immunerx='No' and radiotherapy='Yes' and (chemotherapy='Yes' or hormonal='Yes') then priorrx='radiotherapy+other treatment';
else if radiotherapy='Yes' and (chemotherapy='No' and hormonal='No') then priorrx='radiotherapy';

else if radiotherapy='No' and chemotherapy='Yes' and hormonal='Yes' then priorrx='chemotherapy+hormonal treatment';
else if chemotherapy='Yes' and hormonal='No' then priorrx='chemotherapy';

else if chemotherapy='No' and hormonal='Yes' then priorrx='hormonal treatment';

else priorrx='none of listed treatments';

end;

label OVRLRESP="Visit Overall Response-INV"
risk="Prognostic risk level"
icmstdtn="Imputed conmed start date (numeric)"
icmendtn="Imputed conmed end date (numeric)";

run;

I think I figured out the issue.  I think the else statement needs to go afte the end statement, if my thinking is correct.

[HB]

I woudl not want to track all that branching and elses and else ifs.

I would be more likely to do something like:

if surgery = 'Yes' and (immunerx = 'No' and radiotherapy = 'No' and chemotherapy = 'No'
                   and hormonal = 'No') then priorrx = 'Surgery';
if surgery = 'Yes' and (immunerx = 'Yes' or radiotherapy = 'Yes' or chemotherapy = 'Yes'
                   or hormonal = 'Yes') then priorrx = 'Surgery plus other treatment';
if surgery = 'No' and immunerx = 'Yes' and (radiotherapy = 'No' and chemotherapy = 'No'
                   and hormonal = 'No') then priorrx = 'Immunerx';
if surgery = 'No' and immunerx = 'Yes' and (radiotherapy = 'Yes' or chemotherapy = 'Yes'
                   or hormonal = 'Yes') then priorrx = 'Immunerx plus other treatment';
if surgery = 'No' and immunerx = 'No' and radiotherapy = 'Yes' and (chemotherapy = 'No'
                   and hormonal = 'No') then priorrx = 'radiotherapy';
if surgery = 'No' and immunerx = 'No' and radiotherapy = 'Yes' and (chemotherapy = 'Yes'
                   or hormonal = 'Yes') then priorrx = 'Radiotherapy plus other treatment';
   

etc

[PaulaC]

thank you for your suggestion.

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

100% correct.  Switch the order of these two:

else priorrx='none of listed treatments';

end;

[ballardw]

I've been known to build a text variable consisting of 1 and 0 for Yes and No in order for a list of variables and then using a custom format to display the value.

A brief example:

Proc format library=work;
value $FakeBinary
'11' = 'Both Yes'
'10' = 'Only first Yes'
'01' = 'Only 2nd Yes'
'00' = 'Both No'
;
run;


data junk;
   input v1 $ v2 $;
   FakeBin = cats(v1='Yes',v2='Yes');
   format FakeBin FakeBinary.;
datalines;
Yes Yes
Yes No
No  Yes
No  No
;
run;

Of course the real world does need to consider the cases where one of your dichotomous Yes/No variables is actually missing as well if that is possible.

The format approach I find useful because I know that if I have 4 variables that I need to 2**4 cases and if the combinations get a bit tricky then the IF/Then/Else code can be come very complex. But in a format I can have the values laid out nicely so that I can see that the first, third and 5th items are all 1 and assign the formatted value easily. (Yes 5 variables means 32 possibilities to consider)

[PaulaC]

thank you for your suggestion and comment. I had not thought of doing it that way. Good to know.

[error_prone]

I don't like using that many nested if-statements. In the past various flags were stored in a single numeric variable, to save memory. So, i translated the "Yes" to 1 and "No" to 0, concatenated the 1s and 0s and used a format to get the requested text. The data-step has been reduced to the creation of priorrx.

proc format;
   value priorrxFmt
      1 = 'hormonal treatment'
      2 = 'chemotherapy'
      3 = 'chemotherapy+other treatment'
      4 = 'radiotherapy'
      5-7 = 'radiotherapy+other treatment'
      8 = 'immunotherapy'
      9-15 = 'immunotherapy+other treatment'
      16 = 'Surgery'
      17-31 = 'Surgery+other treatment'
      other = 'none of listed treatments'
   ;
run;

data want;
   length binaryString $ 5 priorrx $ 40;
   set have;
   
   array t surgery immunerx radiotherapy chemotherapy hormonal;
   
   do i = 1 to dim(t);
      binaryString = cats(binaryString, ifc(t{i} = 'Yes', '1', '0'));
   end;
   
   priorrx = put(input(binaryString, binary5.), priorrxFmt.);
   
   drop binaryString;
run;

[PaulaC]

thank you. This is another interesting way of creating the combinations I have. Appreciate the example and code.