replace 1/0 with Y/N

[nickspencer]

I have a dataset with multiple columns with name starting ind_ (eg ind_name, ind_adr,ind_sal) and the values are either 1 or 0 . I will need to convert those values to Y or N with the variable names keeping same.

I tried using proc format and the columns showed correct values of Y or N but they were numeric.

Is there a way I can achieve that by also changing the data type to character?

Thanks in advance

[SASKiwi]

You can't change the type of an existing SAS variable, you have to create a new variable based on the old one. One common trick is to rename the variable you want to switch like below, then recreate the original variable:

proc format;
  value yn
  0='N'
  1='Y';
run;

data want;
  drop tmp_:;
  set have (rename = (MyYesNoVar = tmp_MyYesNoVar));
  MyYesNoVar = put(tmp_MyYesNoVar, yn.);
run;

[nickspencer]

@SASKiwi I have multiple variables to change. Is there a way to achieve this at a time for multiple variables ?

[SASKiwi]

@nickspencer  - Yes. An array in the example code I posted could do this. How many variables do you want to change?

[data_null__]

This will convert all 0/1 to n/y.  Many variables. And preserve variable order as specified in VAR statement.

data ind;
   length ind_name ind_adr ind_sal 8.;
   array _ind[*] ind_:;
   do subject=1 to 10;
      do i = 1 to dim(_ind);
         _ind[i] = ranbin(1234,1,.5);
         end;
      output;
      end;
   drop i;
   attrib ind_: label='Label to preserve';
   run;
proc format; value yn 1='Y' 0='N';
proc transpose data=ind out=flip;
   by subject;
   var ind_:;
   format ind_: yn.;
   run;
proc print;
   run;
proc transpose data=yn out=ind2(drop=_name_);
   by subject;
   var yn;
   id _name_;
   idlabel _label_;
   run;
proc print;
   run;
proc contents varnum;
   run;

[nickspencer]

@SASKiwi there are 15 variables but they all start with the name ind_

[SASKiwi]

Here is the start of a solution. It could be improved by dynamically creating a RENAME = list using SAS DICTIONARY tables.

data want;
  drop tmp_:;
  array indicators (*) ind_V1 ind_V2;
  array tmp_indicators (*) tmp_ind_V1 tmp_ind_V2;
  set have (rename = (ind_V1 = tmp_ind_V1 ind_V2 = tmp_ind_V2));
  do i = 1 to dim(indicators);
   indicators(i) = put(tmp_indicators(i), yn.);
  end;
run;