NOTE: BY Variables in Titles (Golden Oldies)

Whilst the capabilities of SAS software increase markedly from release to release, the core capabilities remain the same. And that means that many hints and tips from years gone by are still valid today. Starting today I'm running a mini-series of tips from past decades, starting with an article by myself in the first ever issue of VIEWS News (winter 1998).

VIEWS News was a printed and posted newsletter that was published quarterly by VIEWS - the UK's independent user group for SAS practitioners.

BY Variables in Titles

You can insert labels and/or values of BY variables into titles. For example, suppose you have a data set sorted by the variable TRTSEQ, with label "Group" and formatted values "Placebo", "Wonder Drug", etc.

options nobyline;

proc print;
  title "List for #byvar1 - #byval1";
  by trtseq;
  var var1-var10;
run;

For each BY group, you'll get the titles:

List for Group - Placebo
List for Group - Wonder Drug
etc.

The NOBYLINE option suppresses the normal printing of the BY lines, so you don't see "Group=Placebo." You can turn it back on with OPTIONS BYLINE.