How to Perform Operations on a Column?

[schlepro]

Hi SAS helpers!

Very new to SAS. Using SAS University Edition. Tried searching and kept finding documents about PROC MEANS and similar. What I want to do is perform operations on a column, such as subtracting the mean. What I was expecting was vectorized arithmetic. What I got was something else.

proc import datafile='/folders/myfolders/mean_dev_example.xlsx' 
     out = mean_dev
     dbms = xlsx
     replace;
run;

* Subtract mean from RowPlusNoise so it looks like md_RPN;
* This is a variation on what I tried;
data mean_dev;
     set mean_dev;
     md2_RPN = RowPlusNoise - mean(RowPlusNoise);
proc print mean_dev;
run;

What I get is a column of zeros? This should be straight forward. I just don't know what I'm doing. Please assist!

Rgds.

[Ksharp · Accepted solution]

Then you need post it at IML forum and Calling @Rick_SAS 

Or you could try SQL.

proc sql;
create table want as
 select RowPlusNoise - mean(RowPlusNoise) as md2_RPN
  from mean_dev ;
quit;

[PGStats]

There is proc stdize for this specific purpose:

data have;
input row	rowplusnoise;
datalines;
1 1.479076657
2 2.295673384
3 3.36174835
4 4.430062053
5 5.592595732
6 6.056510293
7 7.119216833
8 8.510822811
9 9.410188941
10 10.74169849
;

proc stdize data=have out=want method=mean oprefix=o_ sprefix=centered_;
var rowplusnoise;
run;

proc print data=want; run;

Obs. 	row 	o_rowplusnoise 	centered_rowplusnoise
1 	1 	1.4791 	-4.42068
2 	2 	2.2957 	-3.60409
3 	3 	3.3617 	-2.53801
4 	4 	4.4301 	-1.46970
5 	5 	5.5926 	-0.30716
6 	6 	6.0565 	0.15675
7 	7 	7.1192 	1.21946
8 	8 	8.5108 	2.61106
9 	9 	9.4102 	3.51043
10 	10 	10.7417 	4.84194

[Rick_SAS]

As KSharp indicated, if you prefer working with vectorized operations, you can use PROC IML, which is included as part of SAS UE.

Here are  a few tips to get started learning the SAS/IML language.