SAS rename Statement – How to Rename Variables in a Data Step

To rename variables in a SAS data step, you can use the RENAME statement. With the RENAME statement, you can rename one or multiple variables in a data step.

You can rename variables with RENAME in a few different spots in a data step.

The first place you can use RENAME is in the SET statement when creating a new data step from an existing SAS dataset.

data want;
    set have(rename=(variable1=variable2));
run;

You can also rename variables with RENAME in the body of the data step.

data want;
    set have;
    rename variable1=variable2;
run;

One last place is you can rename variables after the data step has completed by putting RENAME in the DATA options.

data want(rename=(variable1=variable2));
    set have;
run;

When working with datasets in SAS, the ability to easily perform certain operations is important.

One such situation is if you want to change the name of one or more variables in a dataset.

With most of the SAS language, you can perform certain operations in many different ways and with great flexibility.

To rename variables in SAS, you can use the RENAME statement. The syntax for RENAME changes slightly depending on where you use the RENAME statement.

You can rename variables with RENAME in a few different spots in a data step.

If you want to rename variables from the dataset you are reading, i.e. in the SET statement, you can do the following.

data want;
    set have(rename=(variable1=variable2));
run;

Using RENAME in a SET statement can be useful so that the names of the variables will already be set as you want.

You can also use RENAME in a data step.

data want;
    set have;
    rename variable1=variable2;
run;

In this case, you have to be careful since depending on where you put this piece of code, there could be errors which arise from how the data step is processed.

One final place where you can rename variables is in the DATA statement.

data want(rename=(variable1=variable2));
    set have;
run;

Using RENAME in the DATA statement will rename the variables in the output dataset after the data step has finished.

How to Rename Multiple Variables in SAS Data Step

If you want to rename multiple variables in a SAS data step, you just need to separate the variables with a space.

Below shows you how to rename multiple variables in a SAS data step with RENAME.

data want;
    set have(rename=(variable1=variable2 variable3=variable4));
run;

If you have variables which all have the same naming pattern, you can rename them all at the same time with variable lists.

Below shows you how to rename variables in a variable list in SAS.

data want;
    set have(rename=(name1-name4=new_name1-new_name4));
run;

Hopefully this article has helped you learn how to use the SAS RENAME statement to rename variables in a data step.