table values as syntax

[antonsvart]

Hello,

I'm trying to use some concatenated informat, format, and input statements that live within a SAS table to function as syntax in a data step. E.g. the following statement 

informat patient_id $32. ;

is a value of a column called "informatStatement".

How would I be able to use these stored values as statements in an actual data step for many other variable (not just patient_id) and many other tables? Or am I going about this all wrong? I'm using base SAS 9.4. Thanks for your help. 

[ed_sas_member]

Hi @antonsvart 

You can use the PROC DATASETS (link) to do this kind of manipulation, including:

• modifying SAS files
• labeling a SAS data set
• adding a Read password to a SAS data set
• indicating how a SAS data set is currently sorted
• creating an index for a SAS data set
• assigning informats and formats to variables in a SAS data set -> your use case.
• renaming variables in a SAS data set
• labeling variables in a SAS data set

e.g.

proc datasets lib=work;
	modify mydata;
	informat patient_id $32.;
run;

If you have these statements stored in a dataset, you can use the DOSUBL() function or the CALL EXECUTE :

data have;
	InformatStatement = 'informat patient_id $32. ;'; output;
	InformatStatement = 'informat date date9. ;'; output;
run;

data _null_;
	set have;
	rc = dosubl(cats('proc datasets lib=work; modify mydata; ',informatStatement,'; run;'));
run;

NB: replace 'mydata' by your dataset name in the modify statement.

-> this will execute the proc datasets at each iteration according to the value of the 'InformationStatement' variable in the 'have' dataset.