Date:         Wed, 23 Aug 2000 18:53:59 GMT
Reply-To:     leamw@MY-DEJA.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         leamw@MY-DEJA.COM
Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy.
Subject:      newbie Retain question

Hi:

I know I'm doing something wrong here.. I just can't figure out what.

I have  a list of patient identifiers that are coded alphanumericallly.
I need them to be numeric. I thought that what I'd do is to just simply
number them from 1 to n using a retain and a sum statement like this:

data two;
set oneb;
by pat_id;
pat_num=1;

retain pat_num 1;
 if first.pat_id  then do;
 pat_num=sum(pat_num,1);
 end;
run;

Of course all I get is the value of 2 for pat_num.
I have tried to replace the if statement with
things like: if pat_num ne 0 then do;
but this doesn't work either

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Lea


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