Problem Note 58137: The SURVEYMEANS procedure incorrectly issues ERROR: No valid observations
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PROC SURVEYMEANS issues
ERROR: No valid observations.
and stops processing under the following conditions:
- a DOMAIN statement is specified
- BY-group processing is used
- a variable in the VAR statement has all missing values in a subset of the BY groups
- the QUANTILE= option, the PERCENTILE= option or any of the percentile keywords are specified in the procedure statement
If ODS Graphics is enabled, quantiles are automatically computed for use in the box plot. For this reason, the problem still occurs when ODS Graphics is on and quantiles are not explicitly requested.
BY-group processing is generally inappropriate in survey data analysis. This problem can be avoided if you specify the BY variable in the DOMAIN statement instead and omit the BY statement.
If you do have actual BY groups and if quantiles are not required, the problem can be circumvented by disabling ODS Graphics. Otherwise, each BY group must be processed in a separate execution of PROC SURVEYMEANS.
Operating System and Release Information
| Product Family | Product | System | Product Release | SAS Release | ||
| Reported | Fixed* | Reported | Fixed* | |||
| SAS System | SAS/STAT | Microsoft® Windows® for x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 |
| z/OS | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise 32-bit | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 32-bit | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise 32-bit | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows 10 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Std | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Std | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Enterprise x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Home Premium x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Professional 32 bit | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Professional x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled AIX | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled Solaris | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| HP-UX IPF | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Linux for x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
| Solaris for x64 | 13.1 | 14.3 | 9.4 TS1M1 | 9.4 TS1M5 | ||
PROC SURVEYMEANS issues "ERROR: No valid observations" and "NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors." with BY, DOMAIN, quantiles, and all missing values in a BY group.
| Type: | Problem Note |
| Priority: | medium |
| Topic: | Analytics ==> Survey Sampling and Analysis SAS Reference ==> Procedures ==> SURVEYMEANS |
| Date Modified: | 2018-01-09 12:19:54 |
| Date Created: | 2016-04-28 14:28:52 |