Hello,   Left and Right are used in SAS just to align a character string. Probably you took them from excel where indeed they are used to extract from a string. ... View more

data want; xy='000499 19'; var1=substr(xy,1,6); var2=substr(xy,8,2); run; ... View more

Consider the following example: data have; x=1;output; x=2;output; x=3;output; run;   data want; set have; retain x; run;   what happens in sas is: Reading the first observation --> x=1   Reading the second observation before set statement x=1 (which happens because of the set statement, retain statement being useless in my example, is only to mimic your situation) Reading the second observation after set statement x=2   Reading the third observation before set statement x=2 Reading the third observation after set statement x=3   So because the variable have the same name the retain does nothing.   Instead consider the following example: data have; x=1;output; x=2;output; x=3;output; run;   data want; set have; retain y;   y=x; run;   what happens in sas is: Reading the first observation --> x=1, y=1   Reading the second observation before set statement x=1 (because of the set statement), y=1 (because of retain statement) Reading the second observation after set statement and before y=x assignment x=2, y=1 Reading the second observation after set statement and after y=x assignment x=2, y=2   Reading the third observation before set statement x=2 (because of the set statement), y=2 (because of retain statement) Reading the third observation after set statement and before y=x assignment x=3, y=2 Reading the third observation after set statement and after y=x assignment x=3, y=3       ... View more

Hello,   In data pct_change; set pct_change; by _type_; retain applicant_sum admit_sum enrollment_sum; run; you are telling SAS - retain my variables applicant_sum , admit_sum, enrollment_sum.   SAS does what you tell it but the variables have the same name on pct_change database so it overwrites them when reading observations into PDV.   Basically your retain statement does nothing...   Consider the following aprroach (code not tested):   data want; set pct_change; by _type_;   retain applicant_sum_r admit_sum_r enrollment_sum_r;   if missing(applicant_sum)=0 then applicant_sum_r=applicant_sum; if missing(admit_sum_r)=0 then admit_sum_r_r=admit_sum_r; if missing(enrollment_sum_r)=0 then enrollment_sum_r_r=enrollment_sum_r;   if last._type_ then output;   run;     ... View more

Hello,   I pretty much use call missing function when I have to set to missing both character and numeric variables.   For example when I use hash and have previously loaded variables using set, I find useful call missing rather then missing.   Consider the following example:   data want; if 0 then set have hash1; if _N_=1 then     do;         declare hash a(dataset: "hash1");         a.definekey('key');         a.definedata('num1', 'num2', 'num3', 'char1', 'char2', 'char3');         a.definedone();     end; set have; if a.find() ne 0 then call missing(num1, num2, num3, char1, char2, char3); run;   ... View more

How the user enter the values? do you have a SAS Stored Process? ... View more