COMPARE Procedure
- Syntax
- Overview
- Concepts
- Results
- Examples Producing a Complete Report of the DifferencesComparing Variables in Different Data SetsComparing a Variable Multiple TimesComparing Variables That Are in the Same Data SetComparing Observations with an ID VariableComparing Values of Observations Using an Output Data Set (OUT=)Creating an Output Data Set of Statistics (OUTSTATS=)
BY Statement
Produces a separate comparison for each BY group.
| See: | BY |
Syntax
Required Argument
- variable
-
specifies the variable that the procedure uses to form BY groups. You can specify more than one variable. If you do not use the NOTSORTED option in the BY statement, then the observations in the data set must be sorted by all the variables that you specify. Variables in a BY statement are called BY variables.
Optional Arguments
- DESCENDING
-
specifies that the observations are sorted in descending order by the variable that immediately follows the word DESCENDING in the BY statement.
- NOTSORTED
-
specifies that observations are not necessarily sorted in alphabetic or numeric order. The observations are grouped in another way (for example, chronological order).Note:The requirement for ordering observations according to the values of BY variables is suspended for BY-group processing when you use the NOTSORTED option. The procedure defines a BY group as a set of contiguous observations that have the same values for all BY variables. If observations with the same values for the BY variables are not contiguous, then the procedure treats each contiguous set as a separate BY group.
Details
BY Processing with PROC COMPARE
To use a BY statement with PROC COMPARE, you must sort
both the base and comparison data sets by the BY variables. The nature
of the comparison depends on whether all BY variables are in the comparison
data set and, if they are, whether their attributes match the ones
of the BY variables in the base data set. The following table shows
how PROC COMPARE behaves under different circumstances: