I want to delete ALL blank observations from a data set.
I only know how to get rid of blanks from one variable:
data a;
set data(where=(var1 ne .)) ;
run;
Here I set a new data set without the blanks from var1.
But how to do it, when I want to get rid of ALL the blanks in the whole data set?
Thanks in advance for your answers.
If you are attempting to get rid of rows where ALL variables are missing, it's quite easy:
/* Create an example with some or all columns missing */
data have;
set sashelp.class;
if _N_ in (2,5,8,13) then do;
call missing(of _numeric_);
end;
if _N_ in (5,6,8,12) then do;
call missing(of _character_);
end;
run;
/* This is the answer */
data want;
set have;
if compress(cats(of _all_),'.')=' ' then delete;
run;
Instead of the compress you could also use OPTIONS MISSING=' ';
beforehand.
If you want to remove ALL Rows with ANY missing values, then you can use NMISS/CMISS functions.
data want;
set have;
if nmiss(of _numeric_) > 0 then delete;
run;
or
data want;
set have;
if nmiss(of _numeric_) + cmiss(of _character_) > 0 then delete;
run;
for all char+numeric variables.
You can do something like this:
data myData;
set myData;
array a(*) _numeric_;
do i=1 to dim(a);
if a(i) = . then delete;
end;
drop i;
This will scan trough all the numeric variables and will delete the observation where it finds a missing value
Here you go. This will work irrespective of the variable being character or numeric.
data withBlanks;
input a$ x y z;
datalines;
a 1 2 3
b 1 . 3
c . . 3
. . .
d . 2 3
e 1 . 3
f 1 2 3
;
run;
%macro removeRowsWithMissingVals(inDsn, outDsn, Exclusion);
/*Inputs:
inDsn: Input dataset with some or all columns missing for some or all rows
outDsn: Output dataset with some or all columns NOT missing for some or all rows
Exclusion: Should be one of {AND, OR}. AND will only exclude rows if any columns have missing values, OR will exclude only rows where all columns have missing values
*/
/*get a list of variables in the input dataset along with their types (i.e., whether they are numericor character type)*/
PROC CONTENTS DATA = &inDsn OUT = CONTENTS(keep = name type varnum);
RUN;
/*put each variable with its own comparison string in a seperate macro variable*/
data _null_;
set CONTENTS nobs = num_of_vars end = lastObs;
/*use NE. for numeric cols (type=1) and NE '' for char types*/
if type = 1 then call symputx(compress("var"!!varnum), compbl(name!!" NE . "));
else call symputx(compress("var"!!varnum), compbl(name!!" NE '' "));
/*make a note of no. of variables to check in the dataset*/
if lastObs then call symputx("no_of_obs", _n_);
run;
DATA &outDsn;
set &inDsn;
where
%do i =1 %to &no_of_obs.;
&&var&i.
%if &i < &no_of_obs. %then &Exclusion;
%end;
;
run;
%mend removeRowsWithMissingVals;
%removeRowsWithMissingVals(withBlanks, withOutBlanksAND, AND);
%removeRowsWithMissingVals(withBlanks, withOutBlanksOR, OR);
Outout of withOutBlanksAND:
a x y z
a 1 2 3
f 1 2 3
Output of withOutBlanksOR:
a x y z
a 1 2 3
b 1 . 3
c . . 3
e 1 . 3
f 1 2 3