"Yuan C." <peppermint_jojo@YAHOO.COM> wrote in message news:200401241908.i0OJ82S11056@listserv.cc.uga.edu... > Dear SAS-L: > I want to count the number of appearance of 3 in each observation, and > generate a new variable: count. But I got unexpected results using the > following code... Can someone help on this? thanks!! > -------------------------- > DATA: > ------------------------ > Obs SEQ REL_1 REL_2 REL_3 REL_4 REL_5 REL_6 REL_7 REL_8 > > 1 42 01 3 3 3 3 3 > 2 47 01 3 3 > 3 51 01 3 4 > 4 91 01 3 3 > 5 92 01 3 3 3 3 > 6 115 01 3 > 7 132 01 3 > 8 140 01 3 > .... ... ... > --------------------------- > My code: > ------------------------ > > DATA CHILD1; SET LTC99_1 (KEEP=SEQ REL_1-REL_20); > count=0; > do i=1 to 20; > retain count; > %macro count(var); > %if rel_&var='3' %then count=count+1; %else count=count; > %mend count; > end; > output; > RUN; QUIT;

Yuan:

You are showing classic symptons; improper mixing of Macro and DATA Step environments. My recommendation is to forget macro for now and concentrate on getting a good understanding of DATA Step arrays.

array rel rel_1-rel_20; count=0; do i = 1 to 20; count + (rel[i] = 3); end;

(rel=3) is a boolean expression that evaluates as follows: true is 1 false is 0

count + expression is a shortcut for count=count+expression with the side effect that count is auto retained (retaining in this step is not needed, I just like the shorter form. As long as count is reset to 0 prior to using it everything works fine)

Looking forward to your next question... you can do a mini-histogram (or freq study) of each row; if you know the range of values to be encountered in variables rel_1 - rel_20. Suppose min is -10 and max is 20.

You can then have

array counts[-10:20] _temporary_; do i = -10 to 20; counts[i]=0; end; do i = 1 to 20; counts[rel[i]] + 1; end;

DATA Step arrays will server you well and long. When they don't or can't, then it may be time to investigate using Macro to solve you problems.

-- Richard A. DeVenezia http://www.devenezia.com/downloads/sas/macros/