The following seems to do what you asked for.

Data ticker; informat Date 8. Ticker $3. Tna 8.; input date ticker Tna; OriginalTNA = Tna;** just for checking later; cards; 1 abc . 2 abc . 3 abc . 4 abc 5 5 abc 7 6 abc . 7 abc . 1 xyz 3 2 xyz . Proc print; run; Proc sort; by descending ticker descending date ; run;

Data Wanted; set ticker; by descending ticker ; if first.ticker then TNAHOLD = .; RETAIN TNAHOLD; if TNA ne . then TNAHold = TNA ; if last.ticker and TNA = . Then TNA = TNAHOLD; run; Proc Print; run;

Proc Sort; by ticker date; run; Proc print; run;

Nat Wooding Environmental Specialist III Dominion, Environmental Biology 4111 Castlewood Rd Richmond, VA 23234 Phone:804-271-5313, Fax: 804-271-2977

"dc353@hotmail.co m" <dc353@HOTMAIL.CO To M> SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Sent by: "SAS(r) cc Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.U Subject GA.EDU> missing values

08/08/2008 11:05 AM

Please respond to "dc353@hotmail.co m" <dc353@HOTMAIL.CO M>

Hi,

I have a dataset as follows:

DATE TICKER TNA

the dataset is sorted by TICKER DATE

There are no missing observations for either TICKER or DATE

Sometimes the first n observations for TNA are missing. If TNA is missing for the first observation (for any TICKER) I need to replace the missing value with the first non missing value for that TICKER. I'd like to be able to do this with only going through the records that I need to. Appreciate any suggestions.

example:

Date Ticker Tna 1 abc . 2 abc . 3 abc . 4 abc 5 5 abc 7 6 abc . 7 abc . 1 xyz 3 2 xyz .

need to convert to:

Date Ticker Tna 1 abc 5 2 abc . 3 abc . 4 abc 5 5 abc 7 6 abc . 7 abc . 1 xyz 3 2 xyz .

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