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Reading variables with a common prefix

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I got an email asking the following question:

In the following program, I don't know how many variables are in the data set A. However, I do know that the variable names are X1–Xk for some value of k. How can I read them all into a SAS/IML matrix when I don't know the value of k? 
data _null_;
call symputx("k", ceil(20*ranuni(0))); /* random number 1-20 */
run;
 
data a; /* create data set with k variables */
array x[&k];
do n = 1 to 5;  /* 5 obs */
   do i = 1 to &k;  /* k vars */
      x[i] = ceil(10*ranuni(1));  
   end;
   output;
end;
run;
 
proc iml;
use A;
  read all var ??? into m; /* ??? how do I read X1-Xk ?! */
close A;

It's a good question. In this situation, you can't specify the variables on the READ statement. Instead, restrict the variables on the USE statement by using the KEEP= option, as follows: 

proc iml;
use A(keep=x:);
  read all var _ALL_ into m[colname=c];
close A;
print m[colname=c];

The KEEP= statement drops any variables that you don't want; the _ALL_ keyword reads in all variables that remain. Consequently, the matrix m contains all variables that begin with the prefix "x" (assuming they are all numeric or all character).

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About Author

Rick Wicklin

Distinguished Researcher in Computational Statistics

Rick Wicklin, PhD, is a distinguished researcher in computational statistics at SAS and is a principal developer of SAS/IML software. His areas of expertise include computational statistics, simulation, statistical graphics, and modern methods in statistical data analysis. Rick is author of the books Statistical Programming with SAS/IML Software and Simulating Data with SAS.

5 Comments

  2. Tanya on

    Hi Rick,

    Thanks for the examples. They are very helpful!
    I have a quick question though. I would like to know what the
    SAS error: Matrix has not been set to the value means.

    The reason why I ask is because this is a vey common error that I get when I read all variables from my data sets. Thank you.

    thanks

    Reply

  3. Pingback: Reading ALL variables INTO a matrix - The DO Loop

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