Date:         Thu, 22 Feb 2001 09:11:04 -0800
Reply-To:     Nick Paszty <npaszty@ORGANIC.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Nick Paszty <npaszty@ORGANIC.COM>
Subject:      Re: selecting min value across multiple vars
Comments: To: Stephen Finnigan <sfinnigan@NATHANASSOC.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <5F56203CB22CD211884400104B98235E75C5BB@nathan_mail.nathana
              ssoc.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Hello Stephen.

You can't have SAS variable names begining with numbers so you'll have to
do something to those column names before getting the data into SAS.

data junk;
length minnm $32;
         input _1992 _1993 _1994 _1995 _1996;

minval=min(_1992,_1993,_1994,_1995,_1996);

array mv [*] _1992 _1993 _1994 _1995 _1996;
do i=1 to dim(mv);
if mv[i]=minval then
do;
         call vname(mv[i],minnm);
end;
end;

drop i;

cards;
2 3 3 1 2
3 1 5 2 3
;
run;

proc print;
run;

That should work for your particular case.

Cheers,

Nick
At 11:44 AM 2/22/01 -0500, Stephen Finnigan wrote:

>I am attempting to find an elegant approach to selecting and retaining the
>variable name containing the minimum value from a series of
>variables.  For example,
>
>In the data that follows, 1% is the minimum value.  How would I retain
>"1995" -- the variable name -- as a new variable value?  Any ideas would
>be most appreciated!
>
>Cheers,
>Stephen
>
>                1992   1993   1994   1995   1996
>MarketShare     2%     3%     3%     1%     2%
>
>____________________________________________________
>Stephen Finnigan           sfinnigan@nathanassoc.com
>Nathan Associates Inc.     703.516.7731