Date:         Sun, 30 Apr 2006 14:02:28 -0700
Reply-To:     David L Cassell <davidlcassell@MSN.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         David L Cassell <davidlcassell@MSN.COM>
Subject:      Re: How to automatically change data name in SET?
In-Reply-To:  <200604301505.k3UAkPvY027943@mailgw.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

leiliang217@YAHOO.COM wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>
>I have a question. I have a few datasets, say mydata1, mydata2,
>mydata3, till mydata&M where M is dymically changing according to
>month. For example in March M=3, in April M=4.
>So I wrote a program like this but got error message
>
>DATA SUBRO.RESULT;
>      DO I = 1 TO &m;
>     SET SUBRO.MYDATA&I;
>     END
>RUN;
>
>The effect I want to achieve is that, for example, for m = 3
>DATA SUBRO.RESULT;
>      SET SUBRO.MYDATA1;
>      SET SUBRO.MYDATA2;
>      SET SUBRO.MYDATA3;
>RUN;
>
>for m = 4, it becomes
>DATA SUBRO.RESULT;
>      SET SUBRO.MYDATA1;
>      SET SUBRO.MYDATA2;
>      SET SUBRO.MYDATA3;
>      SET SUBRO.MYDATA4;
>RUN;
>
>Is there any way to do this?
>
>Thank you!

I see that you have already received a lot of useful advice.  But I have
some questions.

How do you want to recall recent months?  I mean, if you are starting out in
January, do you only want one month?  Always?  It seems to me that you
might want the past K months some of the time when you are not in the
Kth month of the year.

Why do you have your data stored like this?  If you have *all* your months
in one data set, then you can subset the data set using a WHERE clause
and not need any macro code *at*all*.  So I think the key point may be that
you have a weak database design that is driving you into these
complications.


Suppose you have a data set (or in SAS you can have a data view) that holds
every month for you.  We'll call it SUBRO.ALLMONTHS .  Suppose we have a
date variable MyDate in there.  Now you can get all the months for this year
*in*passing* simply by using a data set option:

    (where=(2006=year(MyDate)))

Like this:

proc freq data=SUBRO.ALLMONTHS(where=(2006=year(MyDate)));
  tables wackyvar1*sillvar2;
  run;

Now - all of a sudden - your need for a macro solution may be gone.

HTH,
David
--
David L. Cassell
mathematical statistician
Design Pathways
3115 NW Norwood Pl.
Corvallis OR 97330

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