Nat ,

Why would it grip at you? All the code says is if there is a variable(s) that start with B then retain them. It does not say there must be variables that start with B. So if they are there great and fi they arent then great too. Hey its a win-win situation.

Toby Dunn

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever. Aristophanes

Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life. Aristophanes

You should not decide until you have heard what both have to say. Aristophanes

From: Nat Wooding <Nathaniel_Wooding@DOM.COM> Reply-To: Nathaniel_Wooding@DOM.COM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: sorting problem Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 11:24:44 -0500

Null

Now that does make sense. However, SAS does not gripe at us which I would expect.

Nat

"data _null_;" <datanull@gmail.c om> To Nathaniel_Wooding@dom.com 12/07/2006 11:22 cc AM SAS-L@listserv.uga.edu Subject Re: sorting problem

On 12/7/06, Nat Wooding <Nathaniel_Wooding@dom.com> wrote: > A small addendum to this tread: > Moreover, while doing a little playing, I may have stumbled on a small bug. > Consider the following code: > > data a; > set sashelp.class(keep=name obs=3); > if _n_=1 then do; > newvar = 99; > xvar= 191; > end; > > retain a b : 22 ; > proc print; > run; > > Now, as I count variables, there should be 5 in the output data set: name, > newvar,xvar, a and b. However, when I run this on WinXP, 9.1, I get only 4 > -- there is no variable called "b". > > The log reads: > > NOTE: There were 3 observations read from the data set SASHELP.CLASS. > NOTE: The data set WORK.A has 3 observations and 4 variables >

Hold the phone. The colon "says" retain variables that begin with B. The colon implies they already exist. You cannot create variables this way. Seems correct to me.

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