How to count distinct of the concatenation/cross of two variables in SAS Proc Sql?

Question

I know in teradata or other sql platforms you can find the count distinct of a combination of variables by doing:

select count(distinct x1||x2) from db.table

And this will give all the unique combinations of x1,x2 pairs.

This syntax, however, does not work in proc sql.

Is there anyway to perform such a count in proc sql?

Thanks.

Answer 1

That syntax works perfectly fine in PROC SQL.

proc sql;
  select count(distinct name||sex)
    from sashelp.class;
quit;

If the fields are numeric, you must put them to character (using put) or use cat or one of its siblings, which happily take either numeric or character.

proc sql;
  select count(distinct cats(age,sex))
    from sashelp.class;
quit;