Date:         Thu, 22 Mar 2001 11:33:34 -0500
Reply-To:     "Brucken, Nancy" <Nancy.Brucken@PFIZER.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Brucken, Nancy" <Nancy.Brucken@PFIZER.COM>
Subject:      Re: variable TYPE
Comments: To: 'Daniel a Andrén'
          <Daniela.Andren@ECONOMICS.GU.SE>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Or in one pass through the dataset:

  data a1 (rename=(genderN=gender));
    set a1;
    genderN=input(gender,3.);
    drop gender;
  run;

Hope this helps,
  Nancy

Nancy Brucken
Clinical/Regulatory Informatics
Pfizer Global Research & Development, Ann Arbor
(734) 622-5767
E-mail address:  Nancy.Brucken@pfizer.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Aldi Kraja [mailto:aldi@wubios.wustl.edu]
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 9:27 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: variable TYPE


Hi,
If you want to convert the variables to numeric one way is to use the
function
input(NameOfVariable,informat.):
example:
gender is a defined character when read in the data (although read as 1 and
2
for M and F), but I want to be numeric variable:
data a1;
    input gender $; /* <=== character */
      datalines;
1
2
1
2
1
1
1
; run;
data a1 (drop= gender);
    set a1;
    genderN=input(gender,3.);
run;
data a1;
    set a1 (rename=(genderN=gender));
run;

Output:
                                        Obs    gender /* <== numeric */

                                          1        1
                                          2        2
                                          3        1
                                          4        2
                                          5        1
                                          6        1
                                          7        1

The same principle works from numeric to character, only now use the
function
put().
HTH,
Aldi


Daniela Andrén wrote:

> Hi!
>
> I need to concatenate 25 files that contain the same variables, BUT they
> have different TYPE (sometimes they are CHARACTER, sometimes they are
> NUMERIC) and/or names.
>
> It seems that when the variables changed the names, they also changed the
> type. If I REANME the variables, when I merge the files I got the message
> that the same variable is both numerical and character...
>
> Any suggestion to change the type of variables before merging the files
(or
> any other solution) is very much appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Daniela

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