Converting a category to a measure in VA (character to numeric)

[jwperez]

How do I convert a character field to numeric so I can use it as a measure instead of a category?  For example, I have a field called GPA which was pulled into the data source as a category (text field) because even though a GPA is a number, some values for some people have "N/A" in them (for not applicable).  That's why it's a text field.  I want to use it as a measure so I can add it to a Visual Analytics report and show averages, standard deviations, etc.  There are functions in VA that can convert a numeric field to text, but I don't see anything that converts from character to numeric.  I can write SQL code with my eyes closed, but I'm fairly new to VA, so I don't know the "tricks" to get around this limitation.  Whatever advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

[BrunoMueller]

Hi

You can use the Parse operator to convert a string to a number like so:

Parse('number_as_text'n, 'COMMA14.')

Create a new calculated data item and use the expression above

Bruno

[jwperez · Accepted solution]

WOW, Bruno, this is terrific!  All I had to do was plug my field name into the code and it worked perfectly!  Thanks so much for the quick reply.

[jkovachi]

Where did you plug in your field name?

[jkovachi]

Got it!

[MichelleHomes]

For those that use the Parse function and other string manipulations in SAS Visual Analytics, please note that there may be a performance degradation... http://support.sas.com/kb/57/025.html

[BrunoMueller]

Michelle

Thanks for pointing this out.

Bruno

[Rahul_SAS]

hi bruno_sas,

could you please help me to convert a measure into category.

I have a variable which falls in Category and contains 1001, 1002, 1003 etc. but when using this variable in calculated item it shows as measure.

[BrunoMueller]

Simply change the measure into a category on the data item in question. However I would recommend to have all category variables defined as character variable and likewise a measure should always be numeric, prior to loading the data into the LASR server

[Rahul_SAS]

I already converted that measure as category and its available in Category segmant only but still when using in a filter its coming as measure.

[BrunoMueller]

check the model type for the data item, should be discrete

[gsvolba]

Thanks Bruno, this is very helpful! Also in Viya 3.5!
You saved me a lot of time. We meet for a coffee next time you are in Vienna.

[ccaulkins9]

Conversely, how do I treat a measure as a category, i.e. convert the numeric to character, in a data item within an Information Map, for example? Is there an opposite-parse command?

PS: Should I post this as a "new" question?

[BrunoMueller]

Please post this as a new questions, since it is not Visual Analytics related.

The proper communitiy would be https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Web-Report-Studio/bd-p/sas_web_report_studio

Bruno