Re: SAVE to a new dataset with formatted values ??

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 17:10:55 -0500, Werner HELM <Werner.E.Helm@GMX.DE> wrote:

>Hi all :
>
>I have a SAS dataset OLD with formatted variables.
>How do I best create a new dataset NEW where in NEW the formatted
>values permanently replace the original ones, so that when using the new
>dataset I get the same formatted "look" at the data without the need to
>apply formats ?? I guess I knew it 10 years before, but ....

Hi, Werner,

In the sas release 9, you have a pair of wonderful functions, vvalue() and
vvaluex(), which return the formatted values as a character string. So, you
can do something like below.

Just remember that by applying formats, you are creating character strings
instead of numbers. If the original variable is of numeric type, then you
cannot just "replace" it with a character type variable.

I saw people keeping both the variables in a data set: one stores numeric
values as they are and another stores the formatted character string values
(in most cases "value labels") -- I always envy those people who have large
enough memory and fast enough processing speed to do this. :-)

Cheers,
Chang

data old;
attrib var1 format=words30.;
drop i;
do i = 1 to 3;
var1 = 10**i;
output;
end;
run;

data new;
set old;
cVar1 = vvalue(var1);
run;
proc print data=new;
format var1; /* to see the raw values instead of formatted values */
run;
/* on lst
Obs var1 cVar1

1 10 ten
2 100 one hundred
3 1000 one thousand
*/