I am sure there are more than one way to do this job but I tried Shmuel's code and it works for me.  Thank you all again. ... View more

Thank you all for your help.  I don't want to say why it was set up in that way but have to read the data.    Ksharp, if I understand your code correctly it will rename all variables from all datasets in WORK.  Can you show me the results?    We have 3 years datasets monthly and I may need some of them so I am not sure your first.memname and last.memname will work from the data storage folder.   I remembered I did a similar job before but I don't have the code anymore because of changing jobs.  I think basically we need prco contents to create and output a file that has a statement of rename then using %include in next data steps.   ... View more

it works if I modify it to   ren = compbl(ren || trim(varname) || ' = ' || substr(varname,1,length(varname)-4));   crea1601 = crea ncwb1601 = ncwb bbtt1601 = bbtt aclt1601 = aclt nchb1601 = nchb mobo1601 = mobo mcro1601 = mcro ncro1601 = ncro aclh1601 = aclh ncbu1601 = ncbu mbdq1601 = mbdq bart1601 = bart ruti1601 = ruti ...........   Thanks you soooooooooo much!   ... View more

Thank you so much!  I think the logic is good but it is little off the target.  This is what I have but I think we can fix it:    %put &ren; crea16011601 = crea1601 ncwb16011601 = ncwb1601 bbtt16011601 = bbtt1601 aclt16011601 = aclt1601 nchb16011601 = nchb1601 mobo16011601 = mobo1601 mcro16011601 = mcro1601 ncro16011601 = ncro1601 aclh16011601 = aclh1601 ncbu16011601 = ncbu1601 mbdq16011601 = mbdq1601   ... View more

what is COMBL?  seems I don't know this function. ... View more

seems I have to give 200 variable names in the list when I call ren? Is any way that we can create the list automatically? ... View more

it has 200 variables. Do the monthly data sets have a variable inside that would identify the appropriate month? YES ... View more