Date:         Tue, 9 Jan 2001 14:03:57 -0500
Reply-To:     "Schechter, Robert S" <robert.schechter@ASTRAZENECA.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Schechter, Robert S" <robert.schechter@ASTRAZENECA.COM>
Subject:      Any reason why DESCENDING is not a valid variable name?
Comments: To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.VT.EDU
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Food for thought.

Now in Version 8 we can have long variable names.
DESCENDING is a valid variable name, it seems to work everywhere else, but
how do you sort by it?

11   data;
12   input x descending y;
13   cards;

NOTE: The data set WORK.DATA2 has 5 observations and 3 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used:
      real time           0.02 seconds
      cpu time            0.02 seconds


19   proc sort; by descending;
                             -
                             22
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a name, _ALL_,
_CHARACTER_, _CHAR_,
              _NUMERIC_.
20   proc print; run;
ERROR: Variable NAME not found.