ASSIGN

 

ASSIGN lets you assign a value to the contents of a variable or record/column location or to a new or existing variable or record/column location. The ASSIGN keyword is only required if it is preceded by IF logic in the Glossary.

 

The ASSIGN keyword is optional for the following syntaxes:

 

Syntax 1:

ASSIGN variable name = (value)

or

ASSIGN record/column:width = (value)

or

variable name = (value)

or

record/column:width = (value)

 

Syntax 2:

ASSIGN new variable name = original variable name

or

ASSIGN new record/column:width = original record/column: width

or

new variable name = original variable name

or

new record/column:width = original record/column: width

 

Abbreviation: ASS

 

Usage:

One use of ASSIGN is to copy a value to a new variable or record/column location. For example, if you want to recode a single-column value to a multi-column value, you first write an ASSIGN statement and then a RECODE statement.

 

You can also use ASSIGN to assign a value to an existing variable or record/column location, copy a value from one variable or record/column location to another and to create a new value based on a condition.

 

ASSIGN will overwrite the original value with the new value.

 

Important information:

Note: When using Repeat with the ASSIGN command, the variables must all be the same width. Use View|Data File Information to determine the width for each variable.

ASSIGN examples

 

Related topics:

Glossary Variables