Getting Started with SAS Programming

Chapter 17: Describing Arrays

Introduction

Cody’s law of SAS programming states that if you are writing a program and it is becoming very tedious, you should stop what you are doing and ask yourself, “Is there a non-tedious way to write this program?” The answer is often “yes.” Perhaps there is a function that will save you time and effort, perhaps a SAS macro. SAS arrays are often the tool to save you huge amounts of time and effort writing your program. This chapter demonstrates the enormous power of SAS arrays.

What Is an Array?

A SAS array (with the exception of a temporary array) is a collection of SAS variables. Using the array name and a subscript, an array element can represent any one of the variables included in the array. The best ...