Enable variable attributes to be inherited

[Norman21]

I often find myself creating slightly different variables from existing variables. It would be useful to have a facility to enable inheritance of attributes.

For example, I might have a variable named XYZ where missing has been coded as -9, and I need to create a new variable (XYZm) where I am going to convert -9 to . (SAS missing). I'd like to be able to type something like:

XYZm = inherit(XYZ);

if XYZ = -9 then XYZm = . ; ...etc.

This would be particularly useful where the attributes have been set in another program, and copy/paste of code is not straightforward.

[ballardw]

You may want to be a bit more detailed about exactly what is going on in this example.

You say you have a variable XYZ "where missing as been coded as -9". Is this done as a numeric assignment, an informat that read . as -9, a format that displays missing values as -9?

I believe that in two of the three cases nothing needs to be done for XYZm = xyz. to have the original missing value of xyy as missing for XYZm.

[Norman21]

Sorry, my example wasn't very good.

I'm suggesting a function that enables the inheritance of all attributes, particularly the label.

Here is some code that illustrates the problem:

title 'Example';

data test;
attrib XYZ length=4 label="Variable of interest";
input ABC XYZ;
cards;
1 0027
2 0039
3 0103
4 -9
5 7890
;

data test2;
set test;
if XYZ = -9 then XYZm = .;
else XYZm = XYZ;
run;

proc contents data=test2;
run;

This will produce the following table:

It would be helpful if XYZm inherited all of the attributes of XYZ.

Hope that clarifies.

[Tom]

That would be extremely hard to do. What syntax would you propose that SAS could recognize that you wanted this new behavior?  You couldn't modify how SAS handles a simple assignment statement as that would break zillions of lines of existing code that depend on the current behavior.

To copy type/length/format/informat/label just read the variable twice using RENAME= dataset option.

data want ;
  set have ;
  set have (keep=XYZ rename=(XYZ=XYZm));
  XYZm = ....;
run;

[Norman21]

I was proposing a new function: inherit

XYZm = inherit(XYZ) ;

However, your solution looks good. I'll try it!