On Friday 24th April we heard about Variable Information Functions from Richann Watson!

There are times when we need to use the attributes of a variable within a data set. Normally, this can be done with a simple CONTENTS procedure. The information can be viewed prior to programming and then hardcoded within the program or it can be saved to a data set that can be joined back to the main data set. If the attributes are hardcoded then what happens if the data set changes structure, then the program would need to be updated accordingly. If the information from PROC CONTENTS is saved and then joined with the main data set, then this would need to be done for all data sets that need to be processed. This is where knowing your ‘V’ functions can come in handy. The ‘V’ functions can be used to return the label, format, length, name, type and/or value of a variable or a string within the data step. These functions can come quite in handy when you need to create summary statistics and if you need to perform an algorithm on a variable with a specific naming convention.