select column by position

[Steelers_In_DC]

It doesn't matter if using infile/input, proc sql or a data step.  I am interested in selecting a column by it's position and renaming it.  I will have a SAS dataset where the column names might change, one is only 2*3, very small but I have to reference it and cannot bet on the variable names being constant going forward.   Any way to select the variable names by ordinal position and rename them?

Thanks,

Mark

[data_null__]

In a data step you can define an ARRAY and reference the columns by their index.  Say you want to work with numeric column number 3.

data reference;
   set sashelp.heart;
   array _n

_numeric_;
   * Reference to numeric column 3;
   if _n[3] lt 50;
   run;

[data_null__]

Or you can rename all the variable using their column index.

data heart;
   set sashelp.heart(obs=10);
   run;

proc transpose data=heart(obs=0 /*keep=_numeric_*/) out=vars;
   var _all_;
   run;
filename FT76F001 temp;
data _null_;
   file FT76F001;
   set vars;
   put 'Rename ' _name_ '=Col' _n_ ';';
   run;

proc datasets;
   modify heart;
   %inc FT76F001;
   run;
   quit;
proc print data=heart;
   run;