Renaming Time Series Variables

The DATASOURCE Procedure

Renaming Time Series Variables

Sometimes the time series variable names as given by data vendors are not descriptive enough, or you may prefer a different naming convention. In such cases, you can use the RENAME statement to assign more meaningful names to time series variables. You can also use LABEL statements to associate descriptive labels with your series variables.

For example, the series names for effective exchange rate (F_X_AM) and exchange rate index (F_X_AH) used by IMF can be given more descriptive names and labels by the following statements:

   filename ifsfile 'host-specific-file-name' <host-options>;
   proc datasource filetype=imfifsp infile=ifsfile interval=month
                   out=exchange outcont=exchvars;
      where country in ('112','146','158') and partner=' ';
      keep  f_x_ah f_x_am;
      range from '01jun87'd to '01feb88'd;
      rename  f_x_ah=exrindex  f_x_am=effexr;
      label   f_x_ah='F_X_AH: Exchange Rate Index 1985=100'
              f_x_am='F_X_AM: Effective Exchange Rate(MERM)';
   run;
   
   title1 'Printout of OUTCONT= Showing New NAMEs and LABELs';
   proc print data=exchvars noobs;
      var  name label length;
   run;
   
   title1 'Contents of OUT= Showing New NAMEs and LABELs';
   proc contents data=exchange;
   run;

The RENAME statement allows input names to be quoted strings. If the name of a series in the input file contains blanks or special characters that are not valid SAS name syntax, use the SAS option VALIDVARNAME= ANY or put the series name in quotes to rename it. See the FAME example using rename in the "Selecting Time Series Variables -- The KEEP and DROP Statements" section.

Printout of OUTCONT= Showing New NAMEs and LABELs

name	label	length
EFFEXR	F_X_AM: Effective Exchange Rate(MERM)	5
EXRINDEX	F_X_AH: Exchange Rate Index 1985=100	5

Contents of OUT= Showing New NAMEs and LABELs

The CONTENTS Procedure

Data Set Name:	WORK.EXCHANGE	Observations:	27
Member Type:	DATA	Variables:	7
Engine:	V7	Indexes:	0
Created:	0:28 Monday, June 1, 1998	Observation Length:	24
Last Modified:	0:28 Monday, June 1, 1998	Deleted Observations:	0
Protection:		Compressed:	NO
Data Set Type:		Sorted:	NO
Label:

-----Engine/Host Dependent Information-----
Data Set Page Size:	8192
Number of Data Set Pages:	1
First Data Page:	1
Max Obs per Page:	338
Obs in First Data Page:	27
Number of Data Set Repairs:	0
File Name:	/tmp/SAS_workAFBC000027F8/exchange.sas7bdat
Release Created:	7.00.00P
Host Created:	HP-UX
Inode Number:	14442
Access Permission:	rw-r--r--
Owner Name:	sasknh
File Size (bytes):	16384

-----Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes-----
#	Variable	Type	Len	Pos	Format	Label
3	country	Char	3	4		COUNTRY CODE
4	csc	Char	1	7		CONTROL SOURCE CODE
7	date	Num	4	0	MONYY7.	Date of Observation
2	effexr	Num	5	17		F_X_AM: Effective Exchange Rate(MERM)
1	exrindex	Num	5	12		F_X_AH: Exchange Rate Index 1985=100
5	partner	Char	3	8		PARTNER COUNTRY CODE
6	version	Char	1	11		VERSION CODE

Figure 10.6: Renaming and Labeling Variables

Notice that even though you changed the names of F_X_AH and F_X_AM to EXRINDEX and EFFEXR, respectively, you still used their old names in the KEEP and LABEL statements because renaming takes place at the output stage.

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