Required Argument

expression

is an expression that assigns a value to each table cell in the column.

expression has this form:

expression-1 <comparison-operator expression-n>

expression

is an arithmetic or logical sequence of operators and operands. An operator is a symbol that requests a comparison, a logical operation, or an arithmetic calculation. An operand is one of the following:

constant

is a fixed value, such as the name of a column, or symbols that are declared in a DYNAMIC, MVAR, or NMVAR statement in the current template.

To reference another column in a COMPUTE AS statement, use the name of the column. In addition, if the column has values in the data component, you can reference the column itself in the expression.

For example, this DEFINE COLUMN block defines a column that contains the square root of the value in the column called Source:

define column sqroot;    
   compute as sqrt(source);    
   header="Square Root";    
   format=6.4; 
end;

function

specifies a SAS function. For information about SAS functions, see SAS Functions and CALL Routines: Reference.

built-in variable

is a special type of WHERE expression operand that helps you find common values in column templates. Built-in variables are one or more of the following:

_COLUMN_

is a column number. Column numbering begins with 1.

Alias:_COL_

Example:Setting the Style Element for a Specific Column, Row, and Cell

_DATANAME_

is a data-column name.

_LABEL_

is a column label.

Example:Setting the Style Element for a Specific Column, Row, and Cell

_ROW_

is a row number. Row numbering begins with 1.

Example:Setting the Style Element for a Specific Column, Row, and Cell

_STYLE_

is a style-element name.

Example:Creating Master Templates

_VAL_

is the data value of a cell.

Tip:Use _VAL_ to represent the value of the current column.

Example:Creating Master Templates

comparison-operator

compares a variable with a value or another variable.

Comparison Operators

Symbol	Mnemonic Equivalent	Definition
=	EQ	Equal to
^= or ~= or ¬= or <>	NE	Not equal to
>	GT	Greater than
<	LT	Less than
>=	GE	Greater than or equal to
<=	LE	Less than or equal to
	IN	Equal to one from a list of values

Tip:The COMPUTE AS statement can alter values in an output object. None of the templates that SAS provides modifies any values. To determine whether a template was provided by SAS, use the ODS VERIFY Statement. If the template is not from SAS, the ODS VERIFY statement returns a warning when it runs the SAS program that uses the template. If you receive such a warning, use the SOURCE statement to look at the template and determine whether the COMPUTE AS statement alters values. (See SOURCE Statement.)

See:You can use any expression that can be used in the WHERE= data set option. For information about expressions that you can use in the WHERE data set option, see the WHERE data set option in SAS Data Set Options: Reference and the section on WHERE-Expression Processing in SAS Language Reference: Concepts.

Example:Setting the Style Element for a Specific Column, Row, and Cell