Error 73-322: Expecting an =. / Error 200-322: Symbol is not recognized

[abrianaj]

My data is birthweight vs gestation length for a class. 666 observations. I'm using the SAS university version and I can't figure out how to get the errors to go away. I have tried removing the 'g', removing the word 'under', taking out extra spaces. I just checked the data and there are no holes. Although my frequency table says I'm missing 1 value. I need to export my new data set with my new variables and their categories, but I an getting this error and the categories are not populating in to my new data set.

My input:

DATA BIOSTAT.CPD4;
SET BIOSTAT.CPD;
LABEL Under 1000g = "Under 1000 (grams)"
		Over 1000g = "Over 1000 (grams)"
		Under 800g = "Under 800 (grams)"
		800g-1200g = "800 - 1200 (grams)"
		Over 1200g = "Over 1200 (grams)"
		22-31 weeks = "Under 31 weeks"
		31-40 weeks = "Over 31 weeks"
		22-27 weeks = "Under 27 weeks"
		27-31 weeks = "27-31 weeks"
		31-40 weeks = "Over 31 weeks";
RUN;

 Info from the log page:

911  DATA BIOSTAT.CPD4;
912  SET BIOSTAT.CPD;
913  LABEL Under 1000 = "Under 1000 (grams)"
                 ----
                 73
                 200
ERROR 73-322: Expecting an =.

ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.

914          Over 1000g = "Over 1000 (grams)"
915          Under 800g = "Under 800 (grams)"
916          800g-1200g = "800 - 1200 (grams)"
917          Over 1200g = "Over 1200 (grams)"
918          22-31 weeks = "Under 31 weeks"
919          31-40 weeks = "Over 31 weeks"
920          22-27 weeks = "Under 27 weeks"
921          27-31 weeks = "27-31 weeks"
922          31-40 weeks = "Over 31 weeks";
923  RUN;

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
WARNING: The data set BIOSTAT.CPD4 may be incomplete.  When this step was stopped there were 0
         observations and 5 variables.
WARNING: Data set BIOSTAT.CPD4 was not replaced because this step was stopped.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.06 seconds
      cpu time            0.00 seconds

Please let me know if I'm completely screwing this up. It's due on this coming Friday.

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

In the label statement, you have to give actual (valid) SAS variable names.

Under 1000g is not a valid SAS variable name. Valid SAS variable names cannot have spaces in them. You might want to do a PROC CONTENTS to find what the actual variable names are in BIOSTAT.CPD4

[Rick_SAS]

The LABEL statement has the syntax

LABEL varname = "string";

You are getting errors because you are not specifying the name of a SAS variable. To find the names of the variables, use

PROC CONTENTS data=BIASTAT.CPD sort;

run;

[RW9]

I would really suggest you take some basic SAS lessons, maybe watch the SAS videos.  This is a very basic question.  Using the Label statement in your datastep is to label variables.  It has the form:

label <variablename> <labeltext> [<variablename> <labeltext>];

This:

LABEL Under 1000g = "Under 1000 (grams)"

Does not conform to that at all, as Under 1000g is not a valid SAS variable Name.  Without further information as to what you are attempting its hard to say, but I would think the variable with the label "Under 1000g" has a name, and it is this name you need to put there, say it was called  

[abrianaj]

I literally just found out about this program for school in August. Basic questions lead to easy answers, no? Thanks for your help 🙂 

[SAS_Rob]

You might also want to take a look at Proc FORMAT as well.  It seems that may be what you are looking for.