Date:         Sun, 6 Mar 2011 22:25:34 +0000
Reply-To:     "Keintz, H. Mark" <mkeintz@WHARTON.UPENN.EDU>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Keintz, H. Mark" <mkeintz@WHARTON.UPENN.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Coalesce
Comments: To: Randy <randistan69@HOTMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <201103062129.p26BlS7C006641@willow.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Randy:

You didn't say what was wrong with your results, but I believe this does what you want to do:

data want;
  set have;
  if a=2 then c=coalesce(b,c);
  else c=b;
  retain c;
run;

I presume you forgot the ELSE statement.

Regards,
Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Randy
Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2011 4:30 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Coalesce

My Data is as follows;

VarA  VarB
1       5
1       2
1       3
2       3
2       .
2       .
1       5
1       9
2       9
1       5
1       7
2       7
2       .
2       .

and so on

My data should look as follows:

VarA  VarB   VarC
1       5     5
1       2     2
1       3     3
2       3     3
2       .     3
2       .     3
1       5     5
1       9     9
2       9     9
1       5     5
1       7     7
2       7     7
2       .     7
2       .     7

The code that I wrote is as follow:

data need ; set have;
RETAIN VarC ;
if VarA = 2 then do; VarC = Coalesce (VarB, VarC); end; run;

Where is the mistake that I am making?

Thank You;

Randy