When do I use a WHERE statement instead of an IF statement to subset a data set?
When programming in SAS, there is almost always more than one way to accomplish a task. Beginning programmers may think that there is no difference between using the WHERE statement and the IF statement to subset your data set. Knowledgeable programmers know that depending on the situation, sometimes one statement is more appropriate than the other. For example, if your subset condition includes automatic variables or new variables created within the DATA step, then you must use the IF statement instead of the WHERE statement. This tip shows you how and when to apply the WHERE and IF statements to get correct and reliable results. It also reviews the similarities as well as the differences between these two SAS programming approaches. Detail differences in program efficiency between the two approaches will not be covered in this tip. For more details refer to http://support.sas.com/kb/24/286.html