Question

I’ve got two tables with similar structure:
– First table: id and col1,col2,col3 – all numerics.
– Second table: id and col4,col5,col6 – all numerics.

I want to remove from the first one all rows which are similar to any of the rows from the second tagble. I consider a row to be similiar to other row when any column from the group col1-col3 is equal to any of the columns from the group col4-col6. Now I’m doing it in 9 consecutive data steps (first checks whether col1=col4, second col1=col5 , …, ninth col3=col6), which probably is not the optimal solution.

Any ideas how to improve this?

Answer 1

This is my solution:

data vec1;
  set ds2;
  array cvar{*} col4 col5 col6;
  do ijk=1 to dim(cvar);
    compvar=cvar(ijk);
    output;
  end;
run;

proc sql noprint;
  select distinct compvar into :cvars separated by ' '
  from vec1;
quit;
%let numcvar=&sqlobs;

data ds1(drop=i);
  set ds1;
  array myvar(i) col:;
  do over myvar;
    if myvar in (&cvars.) then delete;
  end;
run;

If you run into trouble with the length of the CVARS macro variable you could use this instead:

data vec1;
  set ds2;
  array cvar{*} col:;
  do ijk=1 to dim(cvar);
    compvar=cvar(ijk);
    output;
  end;
run;

proc sort data=vec1 out=vec2(keep=compvar) nodupkey;
  by compvar;
run;

proc transpose data=vec2 out=flat prefix=x;
run;

data ds1(keep=id col:);
  set ds1b;
  if _n_=1 then set flat;
  array myvar(i) col:;
  array xvar(j) x:;
  do over myvar;
    do over xvar;
      if myvar=xvar then delete;
    end;
  end;
run;

The PROC SORT could be eliminated but it makes it more efficient for big data sets.

Or you could generate a format on the fly:

data vec1;
  set ds2;
  array cvar{*} col4 col5 col6;
  do ijk=1 to dim(cvar);
    compvar=cvar(ijk);
    output;
  end;
run;

proc sort data=vec1 out=vec2 nodupkey;
  by compvar;
run;

data fmt1;
  set vec2;
  length start $20;
  fmtname="remobs";
  start=compress(put(compvar,best.));
  label="remove";
run;

proc format lib=work cntlin=fmt1;
run;

data ds1(drop=i);
  set ds1;
  array myvar(i) col:;
  do over myvar;
    if put(myvar,remobs.)="remove" then delete;
  end;
run;

I suspect this last method would be faster than the two preceding solutions.

UPDATE

Using hash objects

data vec1;
  set ds2;
  array cvar{*} col4 col5 col6;
  do ijk=1 to dim(cvar);
    compvar=cvar(ijk);
    output;
  end;
run;

proc sort data=vec1 out=vec2 nodupkey;
  by compvar;
run;

data ds1_new(keep=id col1 col2 col3);
  if _n_ = 0 then set work.vec2;
  declare hash myhash(DATASET:'work.vec2') ; 
  rc=myhash.defineKey('compvar'); 
  myhash.defineDone();
  set ds1;
  array rcarr{*} rc1-rc3;
  array lookup{*} col1 col2 col3;
  do i=1 to dim(lookup);
    rcarr(i)=myhash.find(key: lookup(i));
    if rcarr(i)=0 then delete;
  end;
run;