clist_to_var

Insert into a (possibly already existing) dataset a variable formatted as a list of (e.g., comma-separated and quote-enhanced) values.

%clist_to_var(clist, var, dsn, mark=%str(%"), sep=%quote(,), lib=WORK);

Arguments

• clist : list of formatted (e.g., comma-separated, quote-enhanced, parentheses-enclosed) items;
• var : name of the variable to use in the dataset;
• mark, sep : (option) characters/strings used respectively as a "quote" and a separator in the input list; default: mark=%str(%"), and" sep=%quote(,), i.e. the input clist is a comma-separated list of quote-enhanced items; see %clist_unquote for further details.

Returns

• dsn : output dataset; if the dataset already exists, then observations with missing values everywhere except for the variable var (possibly not present in dsn) will be appended to the dataset;
• lib : (option) output library; default (not passed or ''): lib is set to WORK.

Examples

The following instructions:

%let clist=("DE", "UK", "SE", "IT", "PL", "AT");
%clist_to_var(&clist, geo, dsn);    

return in WORK.dsn the following table:

Obs	geo
1	DE
2	UK
3	SE
4	IT
5	PL
6	AT

Run macro _example_clist_to_var for more examples.

Note

If the dataset already exists and there are no numeric, or character variables in it, then the following warning will be issued:

WARNING: Defining an array with zero elements.

This message is not an error. See %list_to_var.

See also

%list_to_var, %var_to_clist, %clist_unquote.