SAS macros that are similar to useful R functions.

The SAS macro %colnames() generates a listing of variable names in the SAS log (vertically and horizontally).

The macro is similar to R base function colnames().

In addition, the macro generates the dataset qx_0000_ddt in the library work, that contains the column number, column name/variable name, column label, column format, the length of the column name and the length of the label.

The dataset includes flags for variable names that are greater than 8 characters or labels greater than 40 characters, which helps to quickly check if SAS xpt specifications are followed.

%colnames(DM);

The SAS Macro %gather() transposes a dataset from fat to skinny (normalization) or from a wide to a long dataset.

The macro is similar to R function tidyr:::gather().

The macro produces key/value pairs.

%gather(DbIn, Key, Value, Exclude, DbOut, ValFormat=, WithFormats=N);

NOTE: Option WithFormats executes the SAS function fmtinfo() that requires SAS version 9.4 above!

DbIn: input dataset

Key: name of key variable in output (should not be a column name!)

Value: name of variable with values in output (should not be a column name!)

Exclude: is the -exclude variable (ID variable) - must be a column name
 (or more column names/primary keys, or empty)

DbOut: output dataset

ValFormat: Character format of variable with values (default character 200ドル.)
 numeric formats not possible w/o NOTE: character values converted
 not possibe for (numeric) dates (dates as character only)

WithFormats: Output of the associated SAS Formats (e.g. char, num, time, date, datetime) in 
 Variable _ColForm and _ColTyp 
 (additional feature)
 Please Note: SAS function fmtinfo() requires SAS 9.4 above!

Avoid SAS note

SAS NOTE: The quoted string currently being processed has become more than 262 characters long. You might have unbalanced quotation marks

To avoid use:

options noquotelenmax;

%gather(VS_WIDE, VSTESTCD, VSORRES, SUBJID VISITNUM, VS_LONG, ValFormat=$10.);