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sovrappensiero
‎09-11-2018
  • 8 Posts
  • 3 Likes Given
  • 0 Solutions
  • 0 Likes Received

Re: Hundreds of variables: convert character to numeric

by Fluorite | Level 6 in SAS Procedures
‎09-05-2018 11:31 AM
‎09-05-2018 11:31 AM
Thanks so much for taking the time to explain that part. I got it now. I'm so pleased that I bothered to ask the initial question that seemed rather mundane at first (mundane although I couldn't solve it LOL). I've learned a lot since Thursday evening. ... View more

Re: Hundreds of variables: convert character to numeric

by Fluorite | Level 6 in SAS Procedures
‎09-04-2018 09:21 PM
‎09-04-2018 09:21 PM
@art297, I am working through your solution right now.  It's so elegant and as I figure out what the SAS procedures are I keep thinking, "Brilliant!"  Thank you so much for this insight.  The one part that I do not understand is the SQL part...I can't figure out what it is doing.  I took an intro SQL class so I know that it's selecting a subset from work.owf and putting them into something...but I'm a little lost!   Any explanation you can provide would surely help!  Thanks again. ... View more

Re: Hundreds of variables: convert character to numeric

by Fluorite | Level 6 in SAS Procedures
‎08-31-2018 11:00 AM
‎08-31-2018 11:00 AM
Goodness!  I never imagined there would be so many complex solutions to this problem!  Thank you all so much for taking time to help me.  It's going to take me awhile to fully understand all these proposed solutions and select one to apply in my case, and first I have to get through my work day.  I like the simplicity of the ones that involve exporting and re-importing, but I'll definitely focus on the others.  This is not just a one-time problem, unfortunately.  Data comes in like this quite often so I'll be looking for a solution that fits most elegantly into a data cleaning pipeline.   This is my first time using SAS Communities.  (My background is that I used SAS extensively as an epidemiologist for several years up until about 2013, but since then I have switched to bioinformatics where I mostly use other software/languages.  I still tutor SAS, and this problem is so far the first that has stumped me.  Found the forums and off we go on a learning adventure!)  I'm used to Stack Overflow...can I accept multiple solutions here?  What are my options when several people have proposed functional solutions?  I want to follow the rules and preferences of this community...   Thanks for giving me tons of fodder for my brain, and for helping me tackle this issue! ... View more

Re: Hundreds of variables: convert character to numeric

by Fluorite | Level 6 in SAS Procedures
‎08-30-2018 06:27 PM
‎08-30-2018 06:27 PM
I’m sorry for the typos! I was using my phone and typing faster than the phone can input letters. 😊 ... View more

Re: Hundreds of variables: convert character to numeric

by Fluorite | Level 6 in SAS Procedures
‎08-30-2018 06:26 PM
‎08-30-2018 06:26 PM
Good question. Firstly, I think they would automatically import as numeric in R. If not, I could re-arrange the columns so that all the numeric ones are together(a real pain, but I searched for how to do this in SAS and I couldn’t find a way although by that time I was a little tired and hungry, LOL). Then I could use an apply function to convert all the variables from column 1 to whatever using the as.numeric() function. I ran into a problem with the array in SAS for two reasons: 1. When SAS cannot concert a legitimate character variable to numeric, instead of ignoring it and throwing a warning it converts it to missing. So I cannot use _ALL_ and apply a conversion function hoping that it would “smart convert” only things that look like numbers go numeric format. 2. Because my variables are scattered, there is no easy way to rename them. SAS requires you that, for example newvar = input(oldvar, best8.). In R you can change variables on the fly. ... View more

Re: Hundreds of variables: convert character to numeric

by Fluorite | Level 6 in SAS Procedures
‎08-30-2018 06:15 PM
‎08-30-2018 06:15 PM
Thank you I will try to import it this way! ... View more

Re: Hundreds of variables: convert character to numeric

by Fluorite | Level 6 in SAS Procedures
‎08-30-2018 06:12 PM
‎08-30-2018 06:12 PM
Hi Reeza! I can’t do this because ALL the variables of of character type. ... View more

Hundreds of variables: convert character to numeric

by Fluorite | Level 6 in SAS Procedures
‎08-30-2018 05:57 PM
‎08-30-2018 05:57 PM
Hi!   I have a dataset with hundreds (on the order of 400-500) of indicator variables (values 1,2, or 3) that I imported from Excel (.xlsx) and they have imported as character values.  I need them to be numeric.  If relevant, the data were transposed after importing (initial data look like mixed data type - see below for an example).  They are not all clustered together, so I cannot use something like array cha(*) var1 -- var450 ...     Is there any way to convert hundreds of "truly numeric" variables that are masquerading as character variables, and are scattered among legitimate character variables, in any way that avoids me having to list all of them or convert them one-by-one?     Original data imported:              City1      City2      City3     City4      City5 Var1     words      words    words     words      words Var2       1              2           1             2             2 Var3       2              2           1             1             1 Var4     words      words    words     words      words Var5     words      words    words     words      words     After transposing:             Var1      Var2      Var3     Var4      Var5                City1     words     1           2     words      words                             City2     words     2           2     words      words                                    City3     words     1           1     words      words                                    City4     words     2           1     words      words               City5     words     2           1     words      words                   I'd love some suggestions on how to fix this!  I know how to do this easily in R, perl, bash, and other programming languages, but at the moment I am constrained to using SAS. ... View more
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‎09-11-2018 05:19 PM
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