SAS/CONNECT User's Guide

Syntax for the WHERE Statement

WHERE where-expression-1
<logical-operator where-expression-n>;

The DOWNLOAD procedure processes WHERE statements and the WHERE= data set option when you transfer a single SAS data set. WHERE statements allow multiple WHERE expressions that are joined by logical operators. logical-operator can be OR, OR NOT, AND, or AND NOT.

You can use SAS functions in a WHERE expression. Also, note that a DATA or a PROC step attempts to use an available index to optimize the selection of data when an indexed variable is used in combination with one of the following:

CONTAINS operator
LIKE operator
colon modifier with a comparison operator
TRIM function
SUBSTR function (in some cases).

To understand when use of the SUBSTR function causes an index to be used, look at the format of the SUBSTR function in a WHERE statement:

where substr(variable, position, length)
   = 'character-string';

An index is used in processing when all of the following conditions are met:

position is equal to 1
length is less than or equal to the length of variable
length is equal to the length of character-string.

The following example illustrates using a WHERE statement with the DOWNLOAD procedure. The downloaded data set contains only the observations that meet the WHERE condition.

proc download data=revenue out=new;
   where origin='Atlanta' and revenue < 10,000;
run;

For more information about the WHERE statement, refer to SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

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