SAS-L,

I have a data set with a series of variables with these names:

firstvar .... ID NAME CODE MUGVAR .............. C1G1_CI C1G1_FOM C1G1_SFL C1G1_SOE C1G2_CI C1G2_FOM C1G2_SFL C1G2_SOE C1G3_CI C1G3_FOM C1G3_SFL C1G3_SOE C2G4_CI C2G4_FOM C2G4_SFL C2G4_SOE C2G5_CI C2G5_FOM C2G5_SFL C2G5_SOE C2G6_CI C2G6_FOM C2G6_SFL C2G6_SOE C3G7_CI C3G7_FOM C3G7_SFL C3G7_SOE C3G8_CI C3G8_FOM C3G8_SFL C3G8_SOE C3G9_CI C3G9_FOM C3G9_SFL C3G9_SOE C4G10_CI C4G10_FM C4G10SFL C4G10_SE C4G11_CI C4G11_FM C4G11SFL C4G11_SE C4G12_CI C4G12_FM C4G12SFL C4G12_SE C4G13_CI C4G13_FM C4G13SFL C4G13_SE C5G14_CI C5G14_FM C5G14SFL C5G14_SE ....lastvar

The following select clause in a PROC SQl :

select distinct compress(substr(name,(index(name,'G')),3),'_') into: name_g separated by ' ' from dictionary.columns where libname='ESRD' and memname="%upcase(&dsnold)" and type='num' and (substr(name,1,1)='C' and (substr(name,3,1)='G')) ;

generates this resulting macro variable:

SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable NAME_G resolves to G1 G10 G11 G12 G13 G14 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9

What I want for the macro variable NAME_G is:

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 G10 G11 G12 G13 G14

Can I change the way "distinct" causes the observations to be sorted? Or is there a prefix or suffix that could be added to each element of NAME_G so that "distinct" would cause sorting in the desired way? Any other ideas appreciated.

This is only my second application of dictionary tables and stuffing macro variables using PROC SQL. It is so useful and cool I would hate to have to give up on this and do it another way.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Rodney

Rodney J. Presley, Ph.D. PRO-West 10700 Meridian Av. N., suite 100 Seattle, WA 98133

206-364-9700 voice 206-440-2644 fax

wapro.rpresley@sdps.org