Building on AYBiBTU's solution we can avoid the TRANSPOSE step by transposing in the DATA step, which becomes: data use_array; set foo; by firmid year; array seg[5] _temporary_;  /* make the dimension > largest number of segment id values */ if first.year then call missing(of seg{*}); seg{segmentid} = segmentsales; if last.year then do i=1 to dim(seg);   *something to array elements; end; run; ... View more

It might be helpful to add that while the compute block is handled by much of the same software as the DATA step, it is not a DATA step exactly.  The processing is different - there is no PDV and the order of the execution of the various compute blocks (if there is more than one) is dependent on factors other than the data (such as, order of variables on the COLUMN statement and presence of BEFORE and AFTER location specifications). ... View more

I am not totally sure on this, but this is how I have always thought of this process.  Relative to the macro language the timing is not as we would expect from our experience in the DATA step.  First we know that the REPORT step is a three phase process and the compute block is not executed until the third phase, however it seems that during the first phase the compute blocks have to have been scanned once.  Then during the final phase the compute block is scanned again prior to execution.  I have come to this conclusion based on the behavior of the LINE statement and certain oddities with quotes within quotes.   In your first REPORT step the macro quoting is done outside of the compute block and I suspect that the macro quoting is removed and the macro variable is resolved within the compute block after the first scan.  When %NRSTR appears within the compute block, I think that it is executed after that initial scan and thus the macro quoting is preserved. This seems to me to be similar behavior (but not exactly the same) to when we use macro language elements in compiled programs like SCL, views, and FCMP steps. my 2 cents and that is probably about what it is worth. ... View more

ArtT has a good suggestion, but I also have a couple of thoughts. 1. Do you really need the values in a macro variable? Your function is working against DATA step variables so if we can go against those directly it might help. 2. your DATA _NULL_  step to create the macro variables is a bit convoluted.  A SQL step is more straightforward.  Consider: proc sql noprint; select actualvalues,_edf_    into :actlist separated by ' ',         :emplist separated by ' '       from temp; quit; %put &actlist; %put &emplist; 3.  If you do really need arrays, and we have not seen enough of what you are doing yet to know for sure, then you might consider skipping the macro language and going to either DATA step arrays or hash tables, neither have the size limitations of macro variables (64K). ... View more

Adding a bit of logic should do the trick.  Remember to retain the new variable that you want to carry forward. data have; input cust_acct_num $ status $ stat_bgn :mmddyy10. stat_end  :mmddyy10. ; datalines; 123 ACTV 1/2/2012   02/1/2012    123 ACTV 2/1/2012   06/2/2012    123 ACTV 8/3/2012   11/11/2012  123 ACTV 11/11/2012 01/1/2013  123 ACTV 1/1/2013   05/5/2013    444 ACTV 5/1/2013   08/1/2013    444 ACTV 10/1/2013  11/1/2013  444 ACTV 11/1/2013  12/2/2013  444 ACTV 12/2/2013  12/31/2013 555 ACTV 4/1/2012   05/1/2012     666 ACTV 6/1/2012   06/30/2012   777 ACTV 2/2/2012   02/15/2012   run; data want;    set have;    by cust_acct_num;    lag_stat_end = lag(stat_end);    retain first_bgn .;    if first.cust_acct_num or lag_stat_end ne stat_bgn then first_bgn =stat_bgn;    format stat_bgn stat_end lag_stat_end first_bgn mmddyy10.;    run; ... View more

Starting with SAS9 the size of macro variables has been increased to 64K. ... View more

@Reeza, slight typo (no = in the RETAIN statement) retain counter1 0; ... View more

Here are a couple of approaches when your groups have unequal width.  First an assignment statement - this will be faster than IF-THEN/ELSE processing. i = 1 * (0 <=ratelist{r} <25)     +2 * (25<=ratelist{r} <40)     +3 * (40<=ratelist{r} <60)     +4 * (60<=ratelist{r} <90)     +5 * (90<=ratelist{r}); You could also create an informat that maps the RATELIST{r} to the index value. proc format; invalue raterange    0 -<25=1    25-<40=2     40-<60=3    60-<90=4    90-high=5; The assignment statement then becomes:      i = input(ratelist{r},raterange.); If the number of ranges becomes much more than 5 I would recommend the format approach. ... View more

When forming numeric groups one can usually use the values to calculate the array index.  Here I have added a rate5 so the number of rates and the number of groups are not the same. data have; input id Rate1 Rate2 Rate3 Rate4 rate5; datalines; 1 0 10 23 54 99 2 18 39 23 84 -5 3 4 87 92 8 33 run; data want(drop=i r index rate:);    set have;    ARRAY RATELIST {*} RATE1 RATE2 RATE3 RATE4 rate5;                     /*0-<25, 25-<50, 50-<75, 75-max*/    ARRAY NEWCAT {*} R1_0_25 R1_25_50 R1_50_75 R1_75_M                     R2_0_25 R2_25_50 R2_50_75 R2_75_M                     R3_0_25 R3_25_50 R3_50_75 R3_75_M                      R4_0_25 R4_25_50 R4_50_75 R4_75_M                      R5_0_25 R5_25_50 R5_50_75 R5_75_M ;    do i = 1 to dim(newcat);       newcat{i}=0;    end;    do r = 1 to dim(ratelist);       i = floor(ratelist{r}/25)+1; /* map rate into a nominal value between 1 and 4 */       i = max(i,1);                /* map rates<0 to 1*/       i = min(i,dim(ratelist));    /* map large values to upper rate */       index = i + ((r-1)*4);          /* 4 (75/25+1) is number of groups  - not number or rates */       newcat{index} = 1;    end;    run; ... View more