Base on LinLin's method, another function choice would be first(), to save some typing: data want;    set have;    m=first(compress(nn,'123456789','k')); run; Haikuo ... View more

Do a googling on 'SAS Hash', you will find tons of sugi papers on this topic, that is at least how I started. Plus SAS online documentation and practice, you will have a taste of it before you know it. Regards, Haikuo ... View more

Or: data want; set x(firstobs=3 obs=3 keep=f4); run; Haikuo ... View more

Are you certain that it did not 'append' or it did but with a warning about 'length' problem? If it was the later and the warning really bothers you, you can turn it off by adding option 'NOWARN' after 'force'. It would be ideal if  you could post your code along with your error log. ... View more

you have feb-may 4 variables, so where do you want 'amount' to go? all of them? ... View more

I must have missed something, it seems to me that using %sysrc(_sok) is straightforward to get what you want; data m01 (index=(a)); input a b; cards; 1 3 2 4 3 5 ; run; data m02; input a c; cards; 1 6 2 7 2 8 ; data want ; set m02; set m01 key=a; if %sysrc(_sok)=0 then output ; run; ... View more

Alisa, That is odd. I have tried on Linlin's sample, and my code seems to work: 226  data _null_; 227    length top3 $50; 228    do _n_=1 to 3; 229    set have ; 230    top3=catx(', ', top3, c_ID); 231    end; 232    call symputx('TOP3',top3); 233  run; NOTE: There were 5 observations read from the data set WORK.HAVE. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):       real time           0.00 seconds       cpu time            0.00 seconds SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable TOP3 resolves to a, b, c 234 235  %put &top3; a, b, c Are you sure you have applied _n_=1 to 3 loop? Or maybe let's get rid of the explixit loop and use 'retain': data _null_;   length top3 $50; retain top3;    set customer_sum (obs=3) ;   top3=catx(', ', top3, Customer_ID);     call symputx('TOP3',top3); run; I hope it works for you. ... View more

I didn't see you don't like Merge. Anyway, here is my brute force solution with only 'set'; data m01; input a b; cards; 1 3 2 4 3 5 ; run; data m02; input a c; cards; 1 6 2 7 2 8 ; data want (drop=a1); set m02; do i=1 to nobs; set m01 (rename=a=a1) point=i nobs=nobs; if a=a1 then    do;     output; return; end; end; run; proc print;run; Regards, Haikuo ... View more

did you try to use the 'force' option? ... View more

if base table has the longer length, you don't need to do anything, otherwise, you need to modify the length in base table to the length in the table to be appended. ... View more

Following Ksharp's suggestion, an example of hash() solution on sorting: data have; input a; cards; 10 1 3 2 5 7 4 3 ; data _null_;    if _n_=1 then do;        set have (obs=1);        dcl hash h(dataset: 'have',ordered:'a', multidata: 'yes'); h.definekey('a'); h.definedata('a'); h.definedone();     end; h.output(dataset:'want'); run; proc print;run; ... View more

One thing learned. Check() is more efficient and thus better. Haikuo ... View more