SAS Helpful Hints

Arrays

Arrays are simply lists of variables. SAS appends a number, 1-n, to the array name, to create the variables within the array. Arrays can be Character or Numeric, but not mixed. Here are a few examples:

Data work.A;
    * A numeric array of 10 items;
    Array exampleA{10};

    * An array of existing variables in the dataset;
    * All items in the array must be of the same type;
    Array exampleB variable1 variable2 var3-var9;

    * A numeric array initialized to a list of values;
    Array exampleC{12} (31 28 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31);

    * A character array initialized to a list of values;
    Array exampleD{12} $3 ('Jan' 'Feb' 'Mar' 'Apr' 'May' 'Jun'
            'Jul' 'Aug' 'Sep' 'Oct' 'Nov' 'Dec');

    Do i=1 To Dim(exampleC);
        last_day=exampleC{i};
        month=exampleD{i};
        Output;
    End;
Run;

Please send your comments and suggestions about this web page to A. Watts (watts@bst.rochester.edu)