Date:         Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:02:43 -0600
Reply-To:     "Data _null_;" <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Data _null_;" <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: MAX() function over character values
In-Reply-To:  <201102262218.p1QBkdq8018753@willow.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I worked on a project about 10 years ago and one of the many seemingly
silly coding rules required the use of  Mnemonic Operators.  Now I use
them exclusively because I have grown to like the way they look in my
program.  Since the introduction of the missing function I have mostly
replaced GT .Z and NE ' ' with NOT MISSING().

Of course all this is quite irrelevant.

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 4:18 PM, Tom Abernathy <tom.abernathy@gmail.com> wrote:
> Not only is the documentation confusing. So are the log messages.
> If you code 'MAX' the log notes say '<>'.  But if you code '<>' then the log
> notes say 'not =' and you get different results.
>
>
> 495  data x;
> 496   set sashelp.class;
> 497   where 3 <> 3;
> NOTE: The "<>" operator is interpreted as "not equals".
> 498  run;
>
> NOTE: There were 0 observations read from the data set SASHELP.CLASS.
>      WHERE 3 not = 3;
> NOTE: The data set WORK.X has 0 observations and 5 variables.
> NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
>      real time           0.01 seconds
>      cpu time            0.01 seconds
>
>
> 499
> 500  data x;
> 501   set sashelp.class;
> 502   where 3 max 3;
> 503  run;
>
> NOTE: There were 19 observations read from the data set SASHELP.CLASS.
>      WHERE 3<>3;
> NOTE: The data set WORK.X has 19 observations and 5 variables.
> NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
>      real time           0.01 seconds
>      cpu time            0.00 seconds
>
>
> I never code <> or ><. Not only because of this but also because which means
> min and which means max is not obvious to me.
>
> But now that haven't used an ASCII terminal connected to an IBM mainframe in
> 15 years I have started to use '^=' in place of 'not =' or 'ne'.
>