Charles,

I haven't looked at this aspect of COMPARE but, it seems that it must be inserting the special missing value .E into the numeric variable. You can use the .E in a numeric compare for your WHEREstatement.

Dennis Diskin

> -----Original Message----- > From: Charles Patridge [SMTP:Charles_S_Patridge@PRODIGY.NET] > Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 11:40 AM > To: SAS-L@listserv.uga.edu > Subject: PROC COMPARE - Question > > Hi SAS-Lers, > > I recently had to do a Quality Assurance Project which takes a large file > from the bottom end of an output system and take all dollar figures within > this system and perform a number of calculations to ensure the numbers > from > this output system balances within itself, including a number of > summaries. > > I had no problem using Proc Compare to compare my calculations with those > of > this output system. It worked just fine. > > However, I found an interesting result within the output from Proc Compare > that I was not able to get a satisfactory answer from SAS Institute > Technical Support. > > I output the differences between my calculations and those of the output > system. In this output file from Proc Compare, there is an "E" where the > differences are zero or considered as "EQUAL". Otherwise, the actual > difference (a number) between my calculation and the output system shows > up. > Now, this difference file shows these SAS variables to be numeric and yet > it > will display the letter "E" in these variables. I am assuming the code > behind the scenes of Proc Compare is somehow formatting these cells as > missing or using the letter "E" to equate to "0". And, yet I am unable to > do a WHERE selection on these numeric variables trying to find these "E"s. > If I do, I get incompatiable variable type - that is > > Where jan1ma = 'E' and jan1ma is numeric - I get this message > > ERROR: Where clause operator requires compatible variables. > > and if I try > > Where jan1ma = . or 0, I do not get any records. > > Any ideas??? Without having to have PROC COMPARE output OUTCOMP and > OUTDIF > > > Anyone have an idea as to how to select these numeric variables containing > "E"? > > I do not want to have Proc Compare output OUTCOMP and OUTDIF just so I can > find zero differences as this is what Proc Compare so wonderfully. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > > Charles Patridge > Email: Charles.Patridge@thehartford.com > > Here is the actual Proc Compare code I use: > > proc compare base=pardb compare=pardbchk criterion=2 method=absolute > outnoequal noprint > out=diff (drop=_type_ _obs_); > by Summary ml yr item desc; > run;