Date:         Thu, 7 Nov 2002 01:09:28 +0800
Reply-To:     fred <xkrim3@hotmail.com>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         fred <xkrim3@HOTMAIL.COM>
Organization: xk
Subject:      * macro to rename variables *

Hi all

I've written some code to rename 250 variables in my dataset. The code works
but it is extremely inefficient. Too much iteration. Would appreciate your
advice. Thanks.

* to produce sample data ;
%let class=alpha ;
data oldset_&class ;
 do i=1 to 250 ;
  val = int(ranuni(1)*100) ;
 output ;
 end ;
 drop i ;
run ;
proc transpose data=oldset_&class out=newset_&class(drop=newname)
name=newname prefix=Var  ;  run ;

* can the following code be made more efficient? too much iteration.
can a call symput statement be used to dump the entire 'chngname' string
into macro rename1 ? ;
%macro rename1(chgname=chgname, class=&class);
options mprint mlogic ;
data newset&class ;
 set newset&class ;
 rename &chgname ;
 label &chgname ;
run ;
%mEnd rename1 ;

%macro rename2(class=alpha) ;
options mprint mlogic ;
proc contents data=newset_&class out=list_&class (keep=name) noprint ; run ;
data name_&class ;
 set list_&class ;
 if name not in ('Var2','Var100') then chgname =
trim(name)||"="||trim(name)||"_&class" ; * Var2 & Var100 excluded ;
 call execute ('%rename1(chgname='||chgname||",class=_&class)" ) ; * rename2
calls rename1 ;
run ;
%mEnd rename2 ;

%rename2(class=alpha)