SAS Certified Specialist Prep Guide

Modifying Variables

Selected Useful Statements

Here are examples of statements that accomplish specific data-manipulation tasks.

Table 9.4 Manipulating Data Using the DATA Step

Task	Example Code
Subset data	if resthr<70 then delete; if tolerance='D';
Drop unwanted variables	drop timemin timesec;
Create or modify a variable	TotalTime=(timemin*60)+timesec;
Initialize and retain a variable	retain SumSec 5400;
Accumulate totals	sumsec+totaltime;
Specify a variable's length	length TestLength $ 6;
Execute statements conditionally	if totaltime>800 then TestLength='Long'; else if 750<=totaltime<=800 then TestLength='Normal'; else if totaltime<750 then TestLength='Short';

The following ...