Combining and Modifying SAS® Data Sets: Examples Second Edition

Example 3.1 Merging Data Sets by a Common Variable

Goal

Match and merge observations from two data sets based on a variable common to both. To make the new data set more informative, create a new variable whose values indicate the data set origin of each observation, and replace the missing values that result from the merge operation with meaningful values.

Example Features

Featured Step	DATA step
Featured Step Options and Statements	Match-merge with MERGE and BY statements IN= data set option
Related Technique	PROC SQL, FULL JOIN, COALESCE function

Input Data Sets

Data set TASKS contains task assignments for five employees. Data set HOURS contains the available hours for five employees. Some employees have data in only one of the two data sets ...