Shortcut for Listing Variables

You can keep all of the numeric or character columns when creating a new data set without listing each one in your KEEP statement:

data test1 (keep = _numeric_); run;

data test2 (keep = _character_); run;

Example:

The work.source data set has three character and five numeric variables. This keep statement keeps one character variable (district) and all of the numeric variables:

data work.mix(keep= distname _numeric_);

set work.source;

run;

This method can also be applied to drop, sum, arrays, etc.