Date:         Tue, 29 Oct 2002 16:20:25 -0600
Reply-To:     Rodney Sparapani <rsparapa@MCW.EDU>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Rodney Sparapani <rsparapa@MCW.EDU>
Organization: Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Subject:      Re: How to return the rows number of a data set?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

I have to slightly disagree with Ian's point about purpose.  Certainly,
it can be very
difficult to write a macro that returns the correct number of
observations from a data set
over a wide variety of situations.  But, if you set out to do just that,
you will not come up
with short 10-20 line examples like we've seen here.  You would need to
construct an
entire architecture that is fault-tolerant and fool-resistant.  It takes
time (see _nobs.sas
in the Open Source SAS Macro Library as an example which took years).  I
suppose
that's really his point.  Not it can't be done, but it can't be done simply.

--
Rodney Sparapani              Medical College of Wisconsin
Sr. Biostatistician           Patient Care & Outcomes Res.
rsparapa@mcw.edu              http://www.mcw.edu/pcor
Was 'Name That Tune' rigged?  WWLD -- What Would Lombardi Do