Date:         Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:31:44 +0100
Reply-To:     Stefan Pohl <stefan.pohl@ISH.DE>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Stefan Pohl <stefan.pohl@ISH.DE>
Subject:      Merge postal codes until a criterion is fulfilled
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi SAS-group,

I have a list of postal codes which have to fulfill a special criterion1:
crit1>100, each postal code has an id,
I know the distances between the postal codes dist1-dist4:

Post.Code Crit1 id | dist1 dist2 dist3 dist4
1067      54    1  | 0     2.5   1.76  8.37
1069      120   2  | 2.5   0     3     8.6
1097      80    3  | 1.76  3     0     4
1099      150   4  | 8.37  8.6   4     0

Crit1 is violated for the ids 1 and 3! I have to merge postcal codes which
have the smallest distance between each other until crit1 is fulfilled. The
smallest distance to postal code 1067 is dist3=1.76, i.e. id = 3, i.e. I
have to merge postal code 1067 with postal code 1097. Then crit1=134 > 100.
Then I introduce the crit2 and an additional regional code

Post.Code Crit1 id | dist1 dist2 dist3 dist4 | Crit2 Reg.Code
1067      54    1  | 0     2.5   1.76  8.37  | 134   10671097
1069      120   2  | 2.5   0     3     8.6   | 120   1069
1097      80    3  | 1.76  3     0     4     | 134   10671097
1099      150   4  | 8.37  8.6   4     0     | 150   1099

The regional code is trim(post.code1!!postcode2) with postcode1 < postcode2.

How can I manage this task?

Thank you for any help.

Stefan.