Thanks, folks.  You are all incredibly helpful. ... View more

Another crazy idea would be for SAS to send me an email when the job is finished. Would THAT be a possibility? ... View more

Completely correct.  Both approaches worked perfectly.  The one marked correct was the faster of the two, considerably faster. Thanks again,damanaulakh88! proc sql; create table nicholas._Combined_trimmed as select * from nicholas._Combined_ except select * from nicholas._Combined_ where Combo like '%xxxxxxx%'    or Combo like '%23601%'    or Combo like '%23602%'    or Combo like '%23603%'    or Combo like '%23604%'    or Combo like '%23605%'    or Combo like '%23606%'    or Combo like '%AvgPrc21%'    or Combo like '%AvgVol21%'    or Combo like '%Close%'    or Combo like '%DayofWeek%'    or Combo like '%High%'    or Combo like '%Low%'    or Combo like '%Open%'    or Combo like '%PxV21%'    or Combo like '%Volume%' ; quit; ... View more

damanaulakh88, the second way you provided to do what was requested worked flawlessly.  Thank you so very much! data nicholas._combined_trimmed ; set nicholas._combined_ ; if index(combo,"23601"    ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"23602"    ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"23603"    ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"23604"    ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"23605"    ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"23606"    ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"AvgPrc21" ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"AvgVol21" ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"Close"    ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"DayofWeek") >0 then delete; if index(combo,"High"     ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"Low"      ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"Open"     ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"PxV21"    ) >0 then delete; if index(combo,"Volume"   ) >0 then delete; run; ... View more

damanaulakh88, here is the log of the full code I'm now trying to use.  Unfortunately I am getting some errors.  Wonder if you can spot what might be wrong?  Using SAS 9.2, by the way.  Thanks! proc sql; create table nicholas._Combined_trimmed as select * from nicholas._Combined_ except select * from nicholas._Combined_ where Combo like "%xxxxxxx%" WARNING: Apparent invocation of macro XXXXXXX not resolved.    or Combo like "%23601%"    or Combo like "%23602%"    or Combo like "%23603%"    or Combo like "%23604%"    or Combo like "%23605%"    or Combo like "%23606%"    or Combo like "%AvgPrc21%" WARNING: Apparent invocation of macro AVGPRC21 not resolved.    or Combo like "%AvgVol21%" WARNING: Apparent invocation of macro AVGVOL21 not resolved.    or Combo like "%Close%" ERROR: Macro keyword CLOSE is not yet implemented.    or Combo like "%DayofWeek%" WARNING: Apparent invocation of macro DAYOFWEEK not resolved.    or Combo like "%High%" WARNING: Apparent invocation of macro HIGH not resolved.    or Combo like "%Low%" WARNING: Apparent invocation of macro LOW not resolved.    or Combo like "%Open%" ERROR: Macro keyword OPEN is not yet implemented.    or Combo like "%PxV21%" WARNING: Apparent invocation of macro PXV21 not resolved.    or Combo like "%Volume%" WARNING: Apparent invocation of macro VOLUME not resolved. ; NOTE: Table NICHOLAS._COMBINED_TRIMMED created, with 6112701 rows and 15 columns. quit; NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors. NOTE: PROCEDURE SQL used (Total process time):      real time           2:54.05      cpu time            45.08 seconds ... View more

Excellent job, damanaulakh88. Here is the code I used: proc sql; create table nicholas._21603_trimmed as select * from nicholas._21603_ except select * from nicholas._21603_ where Combo like '%Low%'; quit; Follow-up question...  If there is a second word I'd like to look for as well, can I a) combine that into the present code you provided?, or b) must I issue a second complete command set for each such additional word? For instance: -- Also look for the word "High", and if Combo has any observations with that word, remove those observation as well. Please amend the above code, if possible. Thanks! ... View more

Once again, Linlin performs her magic.  Big hugs. As before (your other solution above), though, would you please say what's up with "a".  Is that, too, simply some marker, and can be replaced by anything?? This is the SQL code that works: proc sql; create table nicholas.missing as select * from nicholas.complete as a where a.combo not in (select combo from nicholas.subset); quit; ... View more

So I switch "combo" (the actual variable name ) for "id" Still comes up with an error: 2    proc sql; 3    create table nicholas.missing 4    as select * 5    from nicholas.complete 6    where nicholas.complete.combo not in                             -                             22                             76 ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: ;, !, !!, &, *, **, +, -, /, <,               <=, <>, =, >, >=, ?, AND, BETWEEN, CONTAINS, EQ, EQT, EXCEPT, GE, GET, GROUP,               GT, GTT, HAVING, IN, INTERSECT, IS, LE, LET, LIKE, LT, LTT, NE, NET, NOT, NOTIN,               OR, ORDER, OUTER, UNION, ^, ^=, |, ||, ~, ~=. ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored. ... View more

Still get an error when I run your code.  Might be the "id" part? Here's the code I ran: proc sql; create table nicholas.missing as select * from nicholas.complete where nicholas.complete.id not in (select id from nicholas.subset); quit; ... View more

Got it to work following Linlin's suggestion.  Thanks much, Linlin.  The "aa" and "bb" can be anything, doesn't matter, just markers of sorts.  Here's the code that worked: proc sort data=nicholas.complete; by combo; run; proc sort data=nicholas.subset; by combo; run; data nicholas.missing; merge nicholas.complete(in=aa) nicholas.subset(in=bb); by combo; if aa and not bb; run; ... View more

Is this the way? proc sql; create table missing as select * from subset where subset.combo not in (select combo from complete); quit; ... View more

Damanaulakh88 and Reeza, Thanks for trying to help with SQL, but I'm not following how to do it.  I need the actual code. Files: Complete Subset First main variable used for comparing: Combo Output file with difference: Missing ... View more

Linlin, Where does the aa and bb come from? Here is my code so far (assume both sorted): data missing; merge complete(in=aa) subset(in=bb); by combo; if aa and not bb; run; In the above case, are we only comparing the one variable -- combo -- and not worrying about whether the others are the same or not?  If so, that is fine. ... View more