SAS：如何垂直连接多个数据集，其中变量在一个数据集中为数字，在另一个数据集中为字符

Question

This is complicated a little because we're using a pipeline with a filelist to compile the data, so there are 50+ datasets coming in. I need to combine many, many datasets vertically, but var2 is numeric in some and character in others. Var1 is not important, so we can drop it, but when I try to drop it in the data step, it is throwing an error because of the differing data types. More details below.

Here's what I want to do at it's most basic...

data in1; input var1 $ var2 datalines; a 1 b 2;

data in2; input var1 $ var2 $ datalines; a 1a b 2b;

data newdd; set in1 in2; run;

Is it possible to combine these datasets in the "data newdd" step without changing the inputs? Is there a way to drop var2 in this data step in a way that will still let it merge var1 and not throw an error? Or better yet, can I make var2 read in as character in all cases?

Answer 1

To drop var2 use a data set option.

data newdd;
set in1(drop=var2) in2(drop=var2);
run;

To combine and ensure it's the same:

data newdd;
set in1 (in=t1 rename=var2=_var2) in2(in=t2 );
if t1 then var2 = put(_var2, 8. -l);
run; 

Long answer - you need to fix how you read in the files - all 50 from source so they're consistent. You can have SAS generate the correct types/INPUT statement if you have a master list of variables and type/length/format/informat, type at minimum.