Hi,

In general, you will need 2 steps. 1. Get the first funding_date for each Client_No. 2. Merge back to original data. They can be done within one or two data steps or proc sql.

Something like this will be conventional:

data have; infile cards; input obs Client_No :$10. funding_date :yymmdd10. Acct_nbr :$10.; format funding_date yymmdd10.; cards; 1 A2208xxxxx 2002/10/29 0103xxxA 2 A2208xxxxx 2002/10/29 0103xxxB 3 A2208xxxxx 2004/6/9 0103xxxC ;

/*1. Data step: two step approach*/

data pre_want; set have (sortedby=Client_No funding_date); by Client_No funding_date; if first.client_no; run;

data want; merge have pre_want(in=a); by Client_No funding_date; if a; run;

/*2. Data step: one step approach*/ data want (drop=fd); retain fd; do until (last.client_no); set have (sortedby=Client_No funding_date) ; by Client_No funding_date; if first.client_no then fd=funding_date; end;

do until (last.client_no); set have (sortedby=Client_No funding_date) ; by Client_No funding_date; if fd=funding_date then output; end;

run;

/*3. SQL approach:*/ proc sql; create table want (drop=cn dt) as select * from have right join (select Client_No as cn, min(funding_date) as dt from have group by Client_No) b on have.client_no=b.cn and have.funding_date=b.dt; quit;

I am sure there are many other approaches that others will be presenting. Here is just my 2cents.

HTH, Haikuo

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Stanley Luo Sent: Friday, October 07, 2011 6:33 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: keep the first time record

Dear SAS-Ls: Another question is... I want to keep the first time(the first day) transaction record of the same client.

For example below:

obs Client_No funding_date Acct_nbr 1 A2208xxxxx 2002/10/29 0103xxxA 2 A2208xxxxx 2002/10/29 0103xxxB 3 A2208xxxxx 2004/6/9 0103xxxC

In my requirement, i want to keep obs 1 and 2. Any suggestions are highly appreciated!! :) ----------------------------------------- Email messages cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as transmitted information can be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services therefore does not accept liability for any error or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of email transmission.

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