@ballardw I have read the retain function but I am not quite sure I understand what is going on behind the scenes and was hoping you could assist me. The code below is doing exactly what I need it to do but I am not sure what is going on behind the scenes at lines 5 & 6 below. The code below returns the status right before an inactive status (which are documented as 4099, 4999) for each ID.     1) data want; 2) set have; 3) by ID STATUS_DATE STATUS_CD; 4) retain STATUS_CD; 5) if last.ID then call missing(STATUS_CD); 6) if STATUS_CD not in (4099,4999) then STAT_LAG=lag(STATUS_CD); 7) run;  ... View more

No, I want to return the previous status that's not inactive. So I was asked to provide a list of all patients with an inactive status. I am then asked, of those patients what was the status before their status was changed to inactive. The retain function that @ballardw recommend worked when I tweaked it a little. I am just trying to articulate what's going on behind the scenes so I can share.  But I guess I'll go ahead and mark it solved.  ... View more

Thank you! I just created a new variable for my retain statement, that way I can keep each of the status field values.  ... View more

Thank you! I am getting closer. In using this I notice that it erases the current status. Is there a way to get it not to do this?   This is the code:   data want;    set have;     retain status;    if last.id then call missing(status);    if status ne 'inactive' then alt=lag(status);    if _n_=1 then alt=’ ‘; run;   This is what I see                                                    VS                desired:  ID STATUS  ALT       ID STATUS  ALT 1 active         1 active   1 active         1 active   1   active       1 inactive active 2 active         2 active   2   active       2 inactive active 3 active         3 active   3 inactive         3 inactive   3 active active       3 active active 3   active       3 inactive active ... View more

ID STATUS  LAG STATUS Desired 1 active -     1 active active     1 inactive active   active 2 active -     2 inactive active   active 3 inactive -     3 active inactive     3 inactive active     3 inactive inactive   active 4 inactive -     4 active inactive     4 urgent active     4 inactive urgent     4 inactive inactive   urgent   I am starting out with the ID and Status fields. I created a new variable called lag status to capture the previous value for each ID. I am trying to figure out which function I could use to capture the previous value of the status field when it isn't equal to the current value of the field. There can be other value types other than inactive. The desired column shows which values I want returned. So for ID3, I want active returned since it was the previous value before inactive. For ID4, I want urgent returned since it's the previous value before the inactive.  ... View more