Date:         Fri, 23 May 2003 16:26:01 -0400
Reply-To:     Jonathan Siegel <jmsiegel@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jonathan Siegel <jmsiegel@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: _N_ in PROC SQL
Comments: To: jmt_mtf@YAHOO.COM

It's worth keeping in mind that the ANSI SQL standard was designed not to
assume that data would come in in any particular order. The idea of order is
meaningless in SQL.

Although monotonic() will work, as SAS evolves there is always the
possibility that SAS will take advantage of the fact that SQL is order-free
in ways that could cause problems down the road. I usually either add my own
sequence var or use a data step if I need to deal with observation order.

Jonathan Siegel


On Thu, 22 May 2003 10:29:21 -0700, Jeff Morison <jmt_mtf@YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>  Thanks to all who responded to my earlier qn.
>
>  Here is another one.
>
>
>  I need to create a variable with the value of _N_ in
>PROC SQL?, is there a way to do this?.
>
>It gives me this ERROR message
>
>ERROR: The following columns were not found in the
>contributing tables: _N_.
>1023  QUIT;
>
>
>TIA,
>Jeff
>
>
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