Well you're pretty close. When 'terminated' end is not start minus 1. It is start.

On 4/29/06, David L Cassell <davidlcassell@msn.com> wrote: > markl@UAB.EDU wrote: > >I have data where segments only have sas start dates. I need to make end > >dates for each segment. > >End dates should be the day before the next segment start date, except > >where > >it is the last work segment before final termination. Then end date should > >be the final termination date. > >Any help appreciated. > >Data sample looks like this. > > > >id start end job segnum > >1 01011960 worker 1 > >1 02031970 terminated 2 > >2 03041978 workb 1 > >2 05041979 workc 2 > >2 06051079 terminated 3 > >4 11121980 worker 1 > >4 12301980 terminated 2 > >4 02031982 worker 3 > >4 11121983 terminated 4 > > First, a data sample is a lot nicer if you make it SAS code ready to > be read into someone's system. Like this: > > > data temp1; > informat start mmddyy8. job $10. ; > format start mmddyy10. ; > input id start job segnum; > datalines; > 1 01011960 worker 1 > 1 02031970 terminated 2 > 2 03041978 workb 1 > 2 05041979 workc 2 > 2 06051979 terminated 3 > 4 11121980 worker 1 > 4 12301980 terminated 2 > 4 02031982 worker 3 > 4 11121983 terminated 4 > ; > run; > > > Note that I turned the date strings into real SAS dates. That will > also make your life easier. Always remember that laziness (NOTE: > in the "Programming Perl" sense of the word) is one of the great > virtues of a programmer, and using SAS dates instead of icky strings > will make things easier later on. > > Then all you have to do is find a way to look ahead one step. There > are lots of ways to do that in SAS. I see that some people have > shown you several. Here's one more. I just read in the data set > twice and merge it with itself, but one of those versions has had its > first record cut off with FIRSTOBS=2, so it is telling us just what > the future will hold, one record at a time. Then the code becomes > a lot easier. > > > data temp2(drop=start2 id2 job2); > merge temp1(firstobs=2 drop=segnum rename=(start=start2 id=id2 job=job2)) > temp1; > if id=id2 & job^=:'term' then end=start2-1; > format end mmddyy10. ; > run; > > > Try this and print the results. Now when we move to the next ID, > or we find a terminated employee, we just don't create END. That's > all there is to it. Oh, and I formatted END just as I formatted START, > so it is easy to read the SAS date variables. That's more laziness on > my part. > > HTH, > David > -- > David L. Cassell > mathematical statistician > Design Pathways > 3115 NW Norwood Pl. > Corvallis OR 97330 > > _________________________________________________________________ > Don't just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! > http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ >