Date:         Fri, 5 May 2000 08:20:01 -0400
Reply-To:     Howard Schreier <Howard_Schreier@ITA.DOC.GOV>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Howard Schreier <Howard_Schreier@ITA.DOC.GOV>
Subject:      Re: Comparing a sequence
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

A working definition of "similar" would also help a great deal.

Paul Dorfman <paul_dorfman@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

>Michelle Edwards <edwardsm@UOGUELPH.CA> first wrote:
>
>>Has anyone dealt with comparing a sequence of numbers?  A client has
>> >several datasets with sequences of  0 and 1 and would like to see how
>> >many of these sequences are similar between datasets.  If anyone has >any
>>ideas or suggestions, I'd appreciate your input.
>
>And then she wrote again:
>
>>OOPs more info...  I've been playing with PROC COMPARE, but this >procedure
>>wants to treat the sequences as values and not a
>>sequence.  It calculates the difference between the values within the
>> >sequence and doesn't maintain the sequence as a "whole". Hope this helps
>>you to understand my question.
>
>Michelle,
>
>You are making it a bit hard on folks who are willing to help. Frankly, even
>from two postings combined I am failing to comprehend the essense of the
>question and have to resort to guesswork. A little shapshot of the way the
>data are laid out in the datasets would be a tremendous help. For instance,
>if some two files of your client look similar to
>
>FILE1  FILE2
>-----  -----
>v1 v2   v1 v2
>0  1    0  1
>1  1    1  0
>0  1    0  1
>1  1    1  1
>0  0    0  1
>0  1    0  1
>
>with the sequences arranged vertically, and your client thinks there is 1
>equal sequence under the variable v1, it is one story. However, if the files
>look like
>
>FILE1
>-----
>v1 v2 v3 v4 v5 v6 v7 v8
>0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0
>1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1
>0  1  0  1  0  1  0  1
>
>FILE2
>-----
>v1 v2 v3 v4 v5 v6 v7 v8
>0  1  0  1  0  1  0  1
>0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0
>1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1
>
>with the sequences arranged horizontally, and your client finds 2 similar
>sequences there, it is a different story. So, what is it? Neither?
>
>Kind regards,
>====================
>Paul M. Dorfman
>Jacksonville, FL
>====================