I have a data set that I want to summarize by day. I use two primary columns "startdate" and "completedate". I want the count the number of starts and completes by day. To do this I summarize the data set twice (once by startdate and again by completedate) and merge the two.

This data set has millions of records and a few hundred other variables. Is there a way to get the desired results in one pass?

The data set looks like (among other columns):

startdate completedate 1/1/01 1/1/01 1/1/01 1/1/01 1/1/01 1/3/01 1/2/01 1/2/01 1/2/01 1/3/01 1/2/01 1/4/01 1/2/01 1/4/01 1/3/01 1/3/01 1/3/01 1/3/01 1/3/01 1/4/01 1/3/01 1/4/01 1/3/01 1/5/01

The desired result is:

date starts completes 1/1/01 3 2 1/2/01 4 1 1/3/01 5 4 1/4/01 0 4 1/5/01 0 1

Like I mentioned, the two pass solution is:

proc means data = source nway noprint missing; class startdate; var _whatever_; output out=starts(rename=(_freq_ = starts startdate = date)) sum=; run;

proc means data = source nway noprint missing; class completedate; var _whatever_; output out=completes(rename=(_freq_ = completes completedate = date)) sum=; run;

data summ; merge startdate completedate ; by date; run;

A one pass solution here could save a few hours. Any Ideas?

Thanks, Nigel _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com