Date:         Fri, 1 May 2009 09:20:53 -0500
Reply-To:     "./ ADD NAME=Data _null_;" <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "./ ADD NAME=Data _null_;" <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: how to upcase varible names in dataset
Comments: To: ed@heaton.name
In-Reply-To:  <002601c9ca4e$ec2fb860$c48f2920$@net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On 5/1/09, Ed Heaton <heatone@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> My final comment is the rhetorical question "Why would you want to make
> your variable names more difficult to read by upper-casing them?"

Exactly! Why do you want  this?

However assuming the OP really wants to do this and did not mean "how
to I upcase all the VALUES of the character variables?", it should be
noted that the META data method propose using PROC DATASETS needs a
small qualification.  The rename statement in PROC DATASETS works
differently than you might expect.

old-name=new-name
changes the name of a variable in the data set specified in the MODIFY
statement. old-name must be a variable that already exists in the data
set. new-name cannot be the name of a variable that already exists in
the data set or the name of an index, and the new name must be a valid
SAS name.

Therefore if a variable already exists "D" and you try to rename to
"D" you get an error.

58914  data low;
58915     retain a b c D;
58916     stop;
58917     call missing(of _all_);
58918     run;
58919  proc datasets nolist;
58920     modify low;
58921     rename d=D;
ERROR: Variable D already exists on file WORK.LOW.
58922     run;

If you are willing to recreate the data set using a data step then the
VALIDVARNAME option could be useful alternative to the RETAIN method
proposed by Ed..

data low;
   retain a b c D;
   stop;
   call missing(of _all_);
   run;
options validvarname=upcase;
data low;
   set low;
   run;
options validvarname=v7;
proc contents data=low;
   run;