DELETE Statement (Optional)

Does not load specified variables into the new database

Applies to:

New databases

Syntax

DELETE variable-identifier<…variable-identifier-n> ;

Syntax Description

The DELETE statement specifies that you want to delete (drop) the specified variables from the load. By default, all SAS variables are loaded unless you specify a DELETE statement.

variable-identifier can be either the SAS variable name or the positional equivalent in the LIST output, which is the number that represents the variable's place in the data file. For example, if you want to delete the third variable, issue the following statement:

 delete 3;

You can delete as many variables as you want to in one DELETE statement. If you delete more than one variable, use spaces to separate the identifiers; do not use commas.

Note: If you delete a variable from a table, this does not change the positional equivalents of the variables. For example, if you delete the second variable, the third variable is still referenced by the number 3, not 2.