Tom, that caused issues so that now it's indicating that ALL the other ones are uninitialized i.e. variable int_code_2 is uninitialized all the way down to 20. Prior to your response, I changed the do loop to %do i=0 %to 20; int_code_&i=pxcde&i; and that worked for all 20.  But I would like to know why I'm getting this error.  Thanks. ... View more

Thanks for the quick response.  Below is the code: %macro renm1; %do i=1 %to 20; int_code_&i=pxcde&i; %end; %mend; So pxcde1 to pxcde20 is the current name and I wish to change it to int_code_1 to int_code_20; Thanks. ... View more

Hi I know this post is old but I'm using it now and for some reason the code is excluding the first entry. So I use the renaming code that changes dxcode1 to dx1 but I get the error message "the variable dx1 in the drop, keep or rename list has never been referenced".  I know that there is for sure a diagcde1 so why would this be happening?  Note that it happens with all the ranges I'm trying to change and not just diagnoses.  Any help greatly appreciated. ... View more

Hi Thanks very much, Reeza...okay I'll use Scott's and see how I do!  Thanks again to you and everyone! EDIT:  Just letting everyone know that Scott's method worked exactly as I wanted it to.  Thanks to all of you so much for sticking with me on this! ... View more

Hi Wow, a lot happened while I was on holidays, thanks to all contributors! Firstly, yes I am a "she" but no apologies necessary Scott because you can call me whatever as long as you're willing to help! Reeza, I understand your concept but I think that it may be two updates i.e. each correction file has to be imported in sequence and any already existing be overwritten with the most current correction.  Then the correction file is applied to the original to update originals.  I'm going to try Reeza's code from Jun 27 but I'm not understanding totally what's it doing.  Is the var1 to whatever the filename?  What if you don't know how many files there are i.e. this volume increases monthly?  Thanks again to everyone! ... View more

Hi Scott Thanks so much for replying. The reason I added the extension was because the error message was indicating "ERROR: Physical file does not exist, F:\TEST\Data\Corrections\Corr2."  Adding the .txt allowed the code to run. What I mean by it not working, is that the results are not as expected.  There are 4 correction files and the first 3 are all editing the same abstract but different fields.  The 4th is a new abstract altogether.  However, the results of nxg1 is only the last abstract and I would have expected to 2 abstracts - the second being the final version of the other abstract with all 3 field changes.  What I would like to have happen is that the master dataset is updated by each correction file in sequence because if the same field is edited twice from the original, it's the second correction that is the value I want.  Not updating in sequence might mean the 1st correction is applied and that's not what I want. Does that make sense?  Thanks. ... View more

Hi Scott Thanks for the speedy response.  I added the notation that you indicated to the code and it still doesn't work as required.  The full code is: %let import_file_sub = 'F:\TEST\Data\Submission\*.txt'; %let import_file_corr='F:\TEST\Data\Corrections\*.txt'; data importA; infile &import_file_sub truncover LRECL = 5000 firstobs=2; input @1 Chart $6.  @7 Acct $6.  @13 Sex $1.  @14 Age $2.  @16 DataA $2.  @18 DataB $2.  @20 DataC $2.; run; filename files pipe 'dir /b "F:\TEST\Data\Corrections\*.txt" /o:N'; data _null_; infile files truncover end=last; input fname $5.; i+1; call symput("fname"||trim(left(put(i,8.))),trim(fname)||".txt"); if last then call symput("total",trim(left(put(i,8.)))); call symput("fnamedate"||trim(left(put(i,8.))),substr(trim(fname),15,8)); run; %macro imports; %do i=1 %to &total.; data nxg1; infile "F:\TEST\Data\Corrections\&&fname&i" dlm='1C'x truncover LRECL = 5000 firstobs=2; input    @1 Chart $6.  @7 Acct $6.  @13 Sex $1.  @14 Age $2.  @16 DataA $2.  @18 DataB $2.  @20 DataC $2.; run; proc sort data=importa; by chart acct; run; proc sort data=nxg1; by chart acct; run; data test; update importa nxg1; by chart acct; run; %end; %MEND; %IMPORTS; As per the last notation, I wish each file to append to the main file in sequence so that if an abstract is edited more than once from the original, then the edits will be applied correctly.  In this test program, there are only a few fields but the real data has hundreds of fields and I won't know which ones have been edited to indicate that in the program.  So it just has to overwrite the original EACH time.  Any assistance greatly appreciated.  Thanks. ... View more

Hey I spoke too soon.  The code is working but it isn't doing as I require.  In this test scenario I have 4 abstracts.  I also have 4 correction files, each with one abstract each.  For two of the correction files I used the same abstract but changed the data.  What I wanted to have happen was that the corrections would be applied in sequence, updating the original in sequence.  So if correction one changed the age in abstract 1 from 50 to 60 and then another file changed the age in abstract 1 to 74, I wanted 74 to be the final value for abstract 1. What the current code is doing is that it only seems to be keeping the final correction file and updating the master file with it and ignoring the corrections from the other correction files.  Please advise - thanks. ... View more