Interpretation of "/IN=Variable name"

[Maria Suchard]

Hello List Serve,

I am hoping you can help me understand, what will probably be some simple syntax.  I have syntax (created by someone else) that says:
MATCH FILES FILE=*
/TABLE='E:\SCHOOLS.SAV'   /IN=INB
/BY ACE.

My question is what does the "/IN=INB" mean or do? In looking at the datafile, it creates INB as a variable- is this correct? What does the /IN do?

I would appreciate any insight.

Thank you all!
Maria

[Bruce Weaver]

From the CSR (aka the FM), MATCH FILES > IN Subcommand:

"IN creates a new variable in the resulting file that indicates whether a case came from the input file named on the preceding FILE subcommand. IN applies only to the file specified on the immediately preceding FILE subcommand." [See note below for suggested edits.]

So for your example, cases in the merged file will have INB=1 when SCHOOLS.SAV has a record with that value of ACE, and INB=0 when SCHOOLS.SAV does NOT have a record with that value of ACE.  


NOTE!  I suggest two small edits to the FM extract shown above: I think that "preceding FILE subcommand" ought to say "preceding FILE or TABLE subcommand" in both places where it appears.  (I've got the v21 CSR--apologies if this has already been fixed in v22.)

Maria Suchard wrote

Hello List Serve,

I am hoping you can help me understand, what will probably be some simple syntax.  I have syntax (created by someone else) that says:
MATCH FILES FILE=*
/TABLE='E:\SCHOOLS.SAV'   /IN=INB
/BY ACE.

My question is what does the "/IN=INB" mean or do? In looking at the datafile, it creates INB as a variable- is this correct? What does the /IN do?

I would appreciate any insight.

Thank you all!
Maria