Date:         Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:21:16 -0800
Reply-To:     Bill McKirgan <Bill.McKirgan@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Bill McKirgan <Bill.McKirgan@GMAIL.COM>
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Subject:      Re: comparing score range between variables
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Dec 17, 9:34 pm, hs AT dc-sug DOT org ("Howard Schreier)" wrote:
> On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:19:55 -0800, Bill McKirgan <Bill.McKir...@GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> >Hi SASers,
>
> >I'm trying to think of a more elegant (read shorter) way of coding the
> >example I provide below.  In the example I am comparing a variable
> >called FSIQ with another variable PIQ to see if PIQ is within plus/
> >minus 5 points of FSIQ.  This works, but I need to apply it to a bunch
> >of other variables, and would like to avoid a large copy/paste/modify
> >job that may cause me to introduce errors.
>
> >Can anyone suggest one or more shorter ways of doing this?  Perhaps an
> >array?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I'm stumped.  Many
> >thanks in advance.
>
> >-- Bill
>
> >data testing; set itbs.iq_data_final;
>
> >piq_within_5pts = 0;
>
> >if fsiq = piq then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
>
> >if fsiq = piq + 1 then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
> >if fsiq = piq + 2 then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
> >if fsiq = piq + 3 then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
> >if fsiq = piq + 4 then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
> >if fsiq = piq + 5 then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
>
> >if fsiq = piq - 1 then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
> >if fsiq = piq - 2 then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
> >if fsiq = piq - 3 then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
> >if fsiq = piq - 4 then piq_within_5pts  = 1; else
> >if fsiq = piq - 5 then piq_within_5pts  = 1;
>
> >put fsiq piq @20 piq_within_5pts ;
>
> >run;
>
> I trust that there are no missing values. Bill's code actually returns a 1
> (true) result if both variables are missing; probably not wanted.
>
> Here is a technique which is almost exactly equivalent, but is much shorter
> and generates a 0 (false) given two missing values:
>
>    piq_within_5pts  = (piq - fsiq) in (-5 : 5);- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Howard,

That is a fantastic solution.  I never would have thought of that.
Yes, there are missing values in our data and I would have tried to
handle it in a different way that would involve many more lines of
code.  This is very elegant.  Thank you.

Now I have to laugh that my mind was so blocked yesterday that I did
not think of using subtraction wiht the abs() function as Joe and
Chang suggested.  Sometimes I fail to consider alternatives and it is
wonderful to be able to ask for help here on SAS-L

Thanks everyone!

Bill