Saving results from SAS proc freq with multiple tables

Question

I'm a beginner in SAS and I have the following problem.

I need to calculate counts and percents of several variables (A B C) from one dataset and save the results to another dataset. my code is:

proc freq data=mydata; tables A B C / out=data_out ; run;

the result of the procedure for each variable appears in the SAS output window, but data_out contains the results only for the last variable. How to save them all in data_out? Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

ODS OUTPUT is your answer. You can't output directly using the OUT=, but you can output them like so:

ods output OneWayFreqs=freqs;
proc freq data=sashelp.class;
  tables age height weight;
run;
ods output close;

OneWayFreqs is the one-way tables, (n>1)-way tables are CrossTabFreqs:

ods output CrossTabFreqs=freqs;
ods trace on;
proc freq data=sashelp.class;
  tables age*height*weight;
run;
ods output close;

You can find out the correct name by running ods trace on; and then running your initial proc whatever (to the screen); it will tell you the names of the output in the log. (ods trace off; when you get tired of seeing it.)

Answer 2

Lots of good basic sas stuff to learn here

1) Run three proc freq statements (one for each variable a b c) with a different output dataset name so the datasets are not over written.

2) use a rename option on the out = statement to change the count and percent variables for when you combine the datasets

3) sort by category and merge all datasets together

(I'm assuming there are values that appear in in multiple variables, if not you could just stack the data sets)

data mydata;
    input a $ b $ c$;
    datalines;
r r g
g r b
b b r
r r r
g g b
b r r
;
run;

proc freq noprint data = mydata; 
    tables a / out = data_a 
    (rename = (a = category count = count_a percent = percent_a)); 
run;
proc freq noprint data = mydata; 
    tables b / out = data_b 
    (rename = (b = category count = count_b percent = percent_b)); 
run;
proc freq noprint data = mydata; 
    tables c / out = data_c 
    (rename = (c = category count = count_c percent = percent_c)); 
run;

proc sort data = data_a; by category; run;
proc sort data = data_b; by category; run;
proc sort data = data_c; by category; run;

data data_out;
    merge data_a data_b data_c;
    by category;
run;