Date:         Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:31:49 -0500
Reply-To:     Joe Matise <snoopy369@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Joe Matise <snoopy369@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Is there a function to count the number of distinct
              non-missing values in an array?
Comments: To: Jack Clark <jclark@hilltop.umbc.edu>
In-Reply-To:  <b7a7fa630910280819j3543762ate8994151535a20b7@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Still not caffeinated, I missed the 'distinct' bit.  Bah.

Someone replied in a new thread (or at least gmail displays it that way)
suggesting concatenating them into a string; that might work, certainly,
something like
do _n_ = 1 to 50;
 if find(newstring,array[_n_]) = 0 then
newstring=catx("|",newstring,array[_n_]);
end;
then count the |'s (plus one).

Also, you might be able to use CALL SORTC.  Assuming you care about the
x1-x50 being kept in place, put them into a temporary array, call sortc
them, and then do a normal comparison routine going up the line.

do _n_ = 1 to 50;
 if savedvar ne array[_n_] then do;
  count=count+1;
  savedvar=array[_n_];
 end;
end;


-Joe

On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 10:19 AM, Joe Matise <snoopy369@gmail.com> wrote:

> NMISS() will count the number of missing, then subtract?
>
> data test;
> array x x1-x50;
> do _t = 1 to 20;
> do _n_ = 1 to 50;
> call missing(x[_n_]);
> if ranuni(7) < .5 then x[_n_] = 1;
> end;
> n_valid = 50-nmiss(of x:);
> output;
> end;
> run;
>
>
> -Joe
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 7:50 AM, Jack Clark <jclark@hilltop.umbc.edu>wrote:
>
>> Good morning,
>>
>>
>>
>> I have a data set with character variables like var1-var50.  Not all
>> records have values in all 50 variables.  For each record, I would like
>> to know the number of distinct, non-missing values across the 50
>> variables.  My ultimate goal is to have a frequency report of this count
>> so I know that x number of obs. in the data set have 1 unique value, y
>> number of obs. in the data set have 2 unique values, etc.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have thought of switching from my short and wide data set structure to
>> a tall and long one (with transpose or data step), then that may make
>> counting distinct values easier (maybe with PROC SQL).  But I was
>> wondering if anyone knows of some clever data step method or array
>> function (?) that would work.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Jack
>>
>>
>>
>> Jack Clark
>> Senior Research Analyst
>> phone: 410-455-6256
>> fax: 410-455-6850
>> jclark@hilltop.umbc.edu
>>
>> University of Maryland, Baltimore County
>> Sondheim Hall, 3rd Floor
>> 1000 Hilltop Circle
>> Baltimore, MD 21250
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>