SAS Expressions

An expression is a sequence of operands and operators which form a set of instructions that are performed to produce a result value. Operands are variable names or constants. They can be numeric, character or both. Operators are special-character operators, functions, or grouping parentheses.

Use expressions in SAS programming statements to

transform variables
create new variables
conditionally process
calculate new values
assign new values.

Arithmetic operators indicate that a calculation is performed. The table below lists the arithmetic operators.

Symbol	Meaning	Example
**	exponentiation	A**3
*	multiplication	12*salary
/	division	income/grosspay
+	addition	score1+score2
-	subtraction	total-cost

The following comparison operators are used to express a condition.

Symbol	Meaning	Example
= or eq	equal to	name='Jones, C.'
^= or ne	not equal to	temp ne 212
> or gt	greater than	income>20000
< or lt	less than	partno lt "BG05"
>= or ge	greater than or equal to	id>='1543'
<= or le	less than or equal to	pulse le 85

To link a sequence of expressions into compound expressions, you use logical operators, including the following:

Operator	Meaning
AND ( & )	and, both. If both expressions are true, then the compound expression is true.
OR ( \| )	or, either. If either expression is true, then the compound expression is true.