Using Patrick 's dataset . /* create a source .csv file in SAS WORK */ filename src_csv "%sysfunc(pathname(work))/source_data.csv"; data _null_; file src_csv; infile datalines truncover; input; put _infile_; datalines; Language,90001,90002,90003 English,35010.55,362,1201.05 French,1250.65,7805.23,. Spanish,2951,.,4835.702 Chinese,130.25,520103.07,. Japanese,762.79,6945.33,1234.693 Russian,501.86,7485.45,9210.252 ; run; /* import .csv into a SAS table */ options validvarname=any; proc import datafile="%sysfunc(pathname(work))/source_data.csv" dbms=csv out=work.have replace; run; /* transpose to long data structure */ proc transpose data=work.have out=work.have_long(rename=(_name_=zip_code col1=n_people)) ; by Language notsorted; run; proc sort data=work.have_long out=work.have_long_sorted; by zip_code descending n_people ; run; data x; set have_long_sorted; by zip_code; if first.zip_code then n=0; n+1; run; proc sql noprint; select distinct catt('x(where=(n=',n,') rename=(language=language_name_',n,' n_people=language_n_',n,'))') into :merge separated by ' ' from x; quit; data want; if 0 then set x(keep=zip_code); merge &merge; by zip_code; drop n; run; ... View more

Your desired data structure only makes sense if you want to use Proc Print for reporting. It's very sub-optimal for any further data processing starting with variable names that don't comply with SAS naming standards.    Below very close to what @Reeza already proposed with two tweaks: 1. replace Value with correct Var statement in Proc Transpose 2. apply a format to variable risk so the new variables get created with a name as desired.   data have; infile datalines truncover; input zip risk threshold; datalines; 90001 1.0 18.22 90001 1.5 20.55 90001 2.0 22.01 90001 2.5 25.95 96962 1.0 19.24 96962 1.5 21.45 96962 2.0 23.85 96962 2.5 25.47 ; /* Step 1: Ensure data is sorted as required for next step */ /* - skip this step if you can be sure that data is already sorted as required */ proc sort data=have; by zip risk; run; /* Step 2: Transpose the data */ proc transpose data=have out=transposed(drop=_NAME_) prefix=threshold_risk_; format risk f5.1; by zip; id risk; var threshold; run; /* Step 3: Print the transposed data */ proc print data=transposed noobs; var zip threshold_risk_:; run;       ... View more

This worked, thanks! ... View more

To change the name of a variable use the RENAME statement or RENAME= dataset option. If the number of variables is small you could build the OLD=NEW name pairs into a macro variable.  But since macro variables are limited to 64K bytes doing that for 2000+ variables will not work.  So instead just write the code to a file.   First get the existing names.  You could use PROC CONTENTS or reference the DICTIONARY.COLUMNS metadata table in SQL code (or the SASHELP.VCOLUMN view to the same in normal code).  But sometimes I find it easier to use PROC TRANSPOSE to get the names.  Use the OBS=0 dataset option so it just generates the list of names.   So if your existing dataset is named HAVE and you want to generate a new dataset named WANT where all of the _XXXX variables are renamed to HAVE_XXXX instead you could do something like this: First generate NAMES dataset with all of the variable names.  Then generate a temporary text file referenced via the fileref CODE using a data step.  Then run a data step to make WANT by reading in HAVE and using %INCLUDE to add the generated RENAME statement to the step. proc transpose data=have(obs=0) out=names; var _: ; run; filename code temp; data _null_; set names end=eof; file code; if _n_=1 then put 'rename'; put _name_ '= HAVE' _name_; if eof then put ';' ; run; data want; set have; %include code; run; ... View more