Certainly effective. Also could use STOP or ABORT to exit the data step, although neither causes the data step to not write out the current dataset. I was somewhat surprised that there wasn't an option in the ERROR statement to cause just that, but I haven't seen one.

-Joe

On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 6:06 PM, Anderson, James <James.Anderson@ucsf.edu>wrote:

> Hi Chang, > > Following Joe's suggestion: > > data four; > set sashelp.class; > if age < 14 then error "age error"; > else if height < 63 then error "height error"; > else if sex ^= "F" then error "sex error"; > else if not ("A"<=substr(name,1,1)<="S") then error "last name error"; > else do; > put name=; > output; > end; > run; > > Jim > > -----Original Message----- > From: Chang Chung [mailto:chang_y_chung@HOTMAIL.COM] > Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 2:23 PM > To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU; Anderson, James > Subject: [SPAM] Re: Alternative for "goto" in do loop > Importance: Low > > On Wed, 12 May 2010 11:38:42 -0700, Anderson, James > <James.Anderson@UCSF.EDU> wrote: > >Michael, > > > >Thanks for the wonderful historical perspective. My admiration for Knuth > is even higher than my admiration for Dijkstra, but I think that this is an > argument where history shows Dijkstra won. Please, can you give a SAS > example where you "really, really needed" goto? > ... > Hi, Jim: > I am obviously not Mikeeeeee, but I find that data step two below is easier > for me to read (and write) then the data step one, don't you? HTH. > Cheers, > Chang > > data one; > set sashelp.class; > if age >= 14 then do; > if height >= 63 then do; > if sex = "F" then do; > if "A"<=substr(name,1,1)<="S" then do; > put name=; > output; > end; else do; > put "last name error occurred"; > end; > end; else do; > put "sex error occurred"; > end; > end; else do; > put "height error occurred"; > end; > end; else do; > put "age error occurred"; > end; > run; > > data two; > length errType $9; > drop errType; > set sashelp.class; > if age < 14 then do; > errType="age"; goto err; > end; > if height < 63 then do; > errType="height"; goto err; > end; > if sex ^= "F" then do; > errType="sex"; goto err; > end; > if not ("A"<=substr(name,1,1)<="S") then do; > errType="last name"; goto err; > end; > put name=; > output; > return; > err: > put errType $ " error occurred"; > run; > > /* on log > sex error occurred > age error occurred > age error occurred > height error occurred > sex error occurred > age error occurred > age error occurred > height error occurred > age error occurred > age error occurred > age error occurred > Name=Judy > age error occurred > Name=Mary > sex error occurred > age error occurred > sex error occurred > age error occurred > sex error occurred > */ >