It is more likely an issue in the reverse situation.  You are calling a macro that has defined parameters, but you don't need to pass any parameter values in the call.  In that case SAS will wait until it sees the semi-colon to know that the macro call is done. 7 %macro noparms; 8 * This macro does not use parameters; 9 %mend noparms; 10 11 options mprint; 12 %noparms MPRINT(NOPARMS): * This macro does not use parameters; 13 %macro parms(x=1); 14 * This macro does use parameters; 15 %mend parms; 16 17 options mprint; 18 %parms If you know the macro you are calling is going to generate one or more complete statements then adding a semi-colon does no harm and could fix the problem above when running interactively. ... View more

The book is SAS Certified Professional Prep Guide. I went back and read the section again and realized I made a mistake. It said: When the COALESCE function is added to the preceding PROC SQL full outer join, the DATA step match-merge (with PROC PRINT step) and the PROC SQL full outer join combine rows in the same way. So, I mistakenly thought the output will be the same and now I realized they only COMBINE them in the same way. ... View more

@ballardw  From the SAS docu Join Operations ... View more

inObs= specifies the total number of rows to read in. obs= specifies the row number where you should stop reading. The firstObs= option specifies the first row of data tobe read, and it's easier to see the difference between obs= and inObs= if you apply firstOBS= in conjunction with those options and compare the results:  /* inObs= vs obs= with firstObs=*/ proc sql inobs=50 number; title 'InObs=50, firstObs=20'; select * from sashelp.cars(firstObs=20) ; quit; title 'obs=50, firstObs=20'; proc sql number; title 'obs=50, firstObs=20'; select * from sashelp.cars(firstObs=20 obs=50) ; quit; Note that the first query returns 50 rows, but the second query only returns 31 rows.   ... View more

/*The best choice is using Perl Regular Expression*/ data have; input ID exampleVar $; cards; 1 dog 2 cat 3 apple ; option noquotelenmax; data want; set have; if prxmatch('/o|g|e/i',exampleVar); run; ... View more

To update data in place look at the MODIFY statement.   To make a NEW dataset with the same index(es) then just specify the index(es) in the DATA statement. ... View more

Wow! Thanks! It would be nice if I can do that with SAS. A MERGE with and without BY confuses me enough, lol. I need to get more practice for sure. Thanks again for teaching me the trick with the use of SET! ... View more

nmiss(x) is the elegant answer. ... View more

Hi @cosmid,   You could define a PROC SQL view including an ORDER BY clause and apply PROC EXPORT to this view. Then the sorting will occur during the PROC EXPORT step and without creating a sorted dataset.   Example:   data have; set sashelp.class(keep=age weight); run; proc sql; create view have_s as select * from have order by weight; quit; proc export data=have_s outfile='C:\Temp\want.csv' dbms=csv replace; run;       ... View more

This expandtabs feature is very good to know. Thank you! Also, I realized what my issue was and I had asked the wrong question. I had a word document with few columns and I am only interested in one of the column values. When I copy and paste from word document to UNIX SAS, the output included multiple columns, but when I paste them into SAS Windows, the output had the correct result. That's when I realized SAS UNIX and SAS Windows treats tabs differently. But this expandtabs is going to help in the future I am sure of it. I am going to spend a bit time to study it more. Thanks again for the info! ... View more

Thank you Koen! ... View more

Thank you! ... View more

@Patrick wrote: @Tom That would include the upper boundary. What if this upper boundary would be 5.5? Adjust the upper bound as appropriate for whatever you want. If you want to exclude the upper bound then do something like: do index=lowerbound to upperbound-delta by step; Or you can always also add the WHILE () condition.  do index=lowerbound to upperbound by step while (index<upperbound); do index=lowebound by step while (index<upperbound); ... View more