Concatenating a column into a variable

Question

Hi there pretty simple question I think, I have a record like this for example :

name value
Mack 12
Mack 10
Mack 50

Now I want to put all the value in a variable or a single row. The result should be

value_concat
12,10,50

I try to use the first and last statement with SAS but it not working for me here is what I wrote :

data List_Trt1;
    set List_Trt;
    by name;

    if first.name then  value_concat = value;
    value_concat = cats(value_concat,",",value);
    if last.name then value_concat = cats(value_concat,",",value);

run;

Thank you for the help!

Answer 1

You're on the right track.

data List_Trt1;
  set List_Trt;
  by name;
  length value_concat $30; *or whatever is appropriate;
  retain value_concat;
  if first.name then value_concat=' ';
  value_concat=catx(',',value_concat,value);
  if last.name then output;
run;

First, you need retain so it keeps its value throughout. Second, you need to initialize it to blank on first.name. Third, you need to output only on last.name. I use CATX because it is more appropriate to what you are doing, but your CATS should be okay also.