dear Neal,

I'm not sure, wether there is an more elegant way, but it works if you create a view before. The combination of obs= and keep= is no problem.

proc sql; create view SUBSET as select * from ADLT1 where sex = 'F'; run; proc print data=SUBSET (obs=2000 keep=sex); run;

Greetings from Germany. Heide

-----Original Message----- From: Neal K Nair [mailto:nnair@ACF.DHHS.GOV] Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 3:07 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Selection of cases within a procedure

Dear colleagues:

This is probably impossible, but I thought I would raise my question in this ingenious forum. I have to run several Proc Print procedures on a data set that contains over 96,000 observations and over 30 variables. For each Proc Print, I select the variables I want to print (using KEEP=) and state a condition for selection using the WHERE clause. For a couple of the Proc Print procedures, however, I want to select the first 2000 observations from the data set, primarily to limit the printing to a manageable number of cases. I read somewhere in the manual that the OBS= and the WHERE clause do not go together. Is there a way to accomplish this? Below is sample of my program (part only).

PROC PRINT DATA=ADLT1 (KEEP=AGE SEX EDUCN) NOOBS N WIDTH=MIN; WHERE AGE LE 18 AND SEX ='F'; VAR AGE SEX EDUCN; I want to do the printing only on the first 2000 observations. I tried _N_ LE 2000 as part of the WHERE clause, but, as you know, that produced an error message. I found out that OBS= and the KEEP= statements also do not go together. I am trying to avoid creating another data set with the first 2000 observations just for these couple of procedures. Is there a way, or is it a wishful thinking on my part? Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions.

Neal