Peter,

If Ya's suggestion does what you need, don't finish reading my post. However, if it doesn't, does discriminant function's nearest neighbor do what you need? Upon doing a Google search I came across it's predecessor, proc neighbor, and was surprised to discover that it still works.

Art -------- On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:00:47 -0400, Peter Flom <peterflomconsulting@MINDSPRING.COM> wrote:

>Hello > >I'd like to find the nearest neighbors for each of a large number of subjects in a multivariate space. > >I found PROC DISTANCE and used it as follows > ><<< >proc distance data = allout out = distance; > var interval(MAFAnT BAFAnT BRFAnT mif2f7a BAF1F7T > BAF2F8T BAF2F7T BAF1F7S BAF2F8S BAF7F8S > BFrF17S BFrF8ZS BRFAnB CoF7FZD MAF7T) ; > id core; >run; >>>>> > >Now, the data set "distance" has 695 variables and 694 observations. It's a large, lower triangular matrix of distances. The rows are CORE numbers and the columns are the same CORE numbers, preceded by a _ > >e.g. > >Obs core _00614D _08185C _08394B _08545A _08558A _08562A _08564A _08580A _08581A > > 1 00614D 0.0000 . . . . . . . . > 2 08185C 10.1968 0.0000 . . . . . . . > 3 08394B 6.7983 12.4716 0.0000 . . . . . . > 4 08545A 13.0307 4.5231 16.1410 0.0000 . . . . . > 5 08558A 7.1568 8.9766 8.1237 12.4371 0.0000 . . . . > 6 08562A 7.1285 4.3278 9.7992 7.3852 6.5285 0.0000 . . . > > >with many more rows and columns. > >Now, I'd like to get a data set with 695 observations, and (say) 3 variables NEAREST1 NEAREST2 and NEAREST3. > >I figure this must have been done before, but I didn't find it .... > > >Thanks > >Peter > >Peter L. Flom, PhD >Statistical Consultant >www DOT peterflom DOT com