Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:46:28 -0500
Reply-To: Arthur Tabachneck <art297@ROGERS.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Arthur Tabachneck <art297@ROGERS.COM>
Subject: Re: MAX() function over character values
Ted,
I would presume so given a large number of variables. However, if only 3
are involved, the following appears to work:
data have;
input s1 $ s2 $ s3 $;
s_max = s1 max s2 max s3;
s_min = s1 min s2 min s3;
cards;
x y a
he aa zz
aa zz he
1 3 2
3 1 2
;
Art
-------
On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:31:57 -0500, Kirby, Ted <ted.kirby@LEWIN.COM> wrote:
>However, it appears from the examples that the min and max operators can
>take only two operands. Thus, some sort of looping structure would need
>to be used if you have a list of values of which you wanted the min or
>max.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Paul Dorfman
>Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 5:49 PM
>To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: MAX() function over character values
>
>Art,
>
>Here is one place:
>
>http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrcon/62955/HTML/default/vie
>wer.
>htm#a000780367.htm
>
>These have been around as long as I remember myself and SAS together.
>They
>are certainly described (with numerous usage examples) in Aster/Seidman
>circa 1990.
>
>Kind regards
>------------
>Paul Dorfman
>Jax, FL
>------------
>
>
>On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:26:11 -0500, Arthur Tabachneck
><art297@ROGERS.COM>
>wrote:
>
>>Paul,
>>
>>That definitely works! Do you know if those operators are documented
>>anywhere? I never even knew they existed.
>>
>>Art
>>--------
>>On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:57:28 -0500, Paul Dorfman
><sashole@BELLSOUTH.NET>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>Yevgeniy,
>>>
>>>Use the MAX/MIN operators instead:
>>>
>>>s_max = s1 max s2 ;
>>>s_min = s1 min s2 ;
>>>
>>>You can also use them with numeric operands if you need to include
>missing
>>>values in the comparison. The descriptive statistics functions,
>including
>>>MIN/MAX ignore nulls - a side effect used to turn them into zeros via
>>>expressions like sum(val,0). And, to boot, the operators execute
>faster
>>than
>>>the respective functions.
>>>
>>>Kind regards
>>>------------
>>>Paul Dorfman
>>>Jax, FL
>>>------------
>>>
>>>On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:28:54 -0500, Bolotin Yevgeniy
>>><YBolotin@SCHOOLS.NYC.GOV> wrote:
>>>
>>>>The MAX function only works on numbers in SAS 9.2
>>>>http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/64316/HTML/default
>/vi
>>>>ewer.htm#a000245913.htm
>>>>
>>>>However, it works on both numbers and characters in SAS/IML 9.2
>>>>http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/imlug/59656/HTML/default/
>lan
>>>>gref_sect169.htm
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Is there a character-capable MAX function in SAS Base that I can use?
>>>>
>>>>(surprisingly enough, PROC SQL seems to have the same limitation)
>>>> ERROR: Function MAX requires a numeric expression as argument 1.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>data _z;
>>>>length z $1.;
>>>>z = max('2','3','a');
>>>>run;
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>NOTE: Character values have been converted to numeric values at the
>>>>places given by:
>>>> (Line):(Column).
>>>> 3053:9 3053:13 3053:17
>>>>NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the
>>>>places given by:
>>>> (Line):(Column).
>>>> 3053:5
>>>>NOTE: Invalid numeric data, 'a' , at line 3053 column 17.
>>>>z=3 _ERROR_=1 _N_=1
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Thanks
>>>>
>>>>SAS 9.2
>>>>WinXP SP3
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