Fried, I am trying to modify your code to allow for use in a SAS dataset stored as follows; but I coudn't get it to work yet. If you have the variables in a SAS dataset, rather in a text file, what shoud replace the infile functions? Thanks again. Type id name A 1 "XXXXX U.S. FUNDING DCP, 08/01/2012   /   " 0.140000% A 2 "Xxxxxx Health & Educational Facilities Authority, NATL-RE" 0.430000% A 3 0.450% Due 12/06/12 B 4 14633 - 0.520% B 5 16438 0.65% 01/26/13 B 6 XXXXXX FINANCE LTD (Q21, Q) 0.646852% C 7 BANK OF XXXXXXX .12% YCD 0.12% C 8 BANK OF XXX XXXXXX XXX CO NY00.090% 08/07/2012 CP C 9 BANK OF XXXXXX XXXX XXX LTD (NY BRANCH) 0.52 C 10 XX&X CORP C 11 Xxxxxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx Ltd./LLC 0.253506% C 12 Xxxxxx Dev. Auth. Poll. Cont. Rev., 0.45% Bonds (New England Pwr. Co. Proj.) Series 1999, tender 08/15/2012, CP Mode C 13 Xxxxx Xxxxxx Capital Co.;0.501% C 14 Xxxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx, 0.4% C 15 X X X X  X X X 0.375 12/28/2012 C 16 XXXX Xxxxx Xxxxx, A1+/P1 Series, 0.420%, 1/15/2013 C 17 XXX XXXX XX XXXXXX XX  2012-8-17  0.0008  ... View more

Hi, I have a question here how did you land upon the number "10" even before running proc cluster, i.e. how did you decided to create 10 clusters. What was the motivation behind that, was a business requirement? Because otherwise pre-deciding the number of clusters in impossible and scientifically incorrect. Now, I am in a situation where I have to use Hierarchical Cluster analysis but I am not being able to decide the number of clusters. I see Proc ACECLUS which says "Neither cluster membership nor the number of clusters needs to be known. PROC ACECLUS is useful for preprocessing data to be subsequently clustered by the CLUSTER or FASTCLUS procedure" But when I see the example provided (LONE example) in documentation section it uses "MAXC=3" option (which is offcourse mandatory requirement of FASTCLUS procedure and is like providing number of cluster explicitly - SAS/STAT(R) 9.2 User's Guide, Second Edition) if it is to be that way then what is the use of running ACECLUS when we are giving the number of clusters explicitly and why then it is quoted in above sentence number of cluster need not to be known. I am confused. Nevertheless main question  is can we use FASTCLUS or CLUSTER procedure without Prior running ACECLUS (I think the answer is yes). But ACECLUS has got its own importance for calculating canonical variables if our dataset that have variables with different scalar measures. And if we use ACECLUS first, then how to arrive at desired number of clusters given that user is novice and is not aware of different algorithms and methods and business needs etc etc. Thanks. Harshad M. ... View more