Looping a proc transpose through multiple data ranges SAS - loops

Question

I am trying to transpose a sequence of ranges from an excel file into SAS. The excel file looks something like this:
31 Dec 01Jan 02Jan 03Jan 04Jan
Book id1 23 24 35 43 98
Book id2 3 4 5 4 1
(few blank rows in between)
05Jan 06Jan 07Jan 08Jan 09Jan
Book id1 14 100 30 23 58
Book id2 2 7 3 8 6
(and it repeats..)
My final output should have a first column for the date and then two additional columns for the book Ids:
Date Book id1 Book id2
31 Dec 23 3
01Jan 24 4
02Jan 35 5
03Jan 43 4
04Jan 98 1
05Jan 14 2
06Jan 100 7
07Jan 30 3
08Jan 23 8
09Jan 58 6
In this particular case I am asking for a simpler method to:
Either import and transpose each range of data and replacing the data range with macro variables to separately import and transpose each individual range
Or to import the whole datafile first and then to create a loop that
transposes each range of data
Code I used for a simple import and transpose of a specific data range:
proc import datafile="&input./have.xlsx"
out=want
dbms=xlsx replace;
range="Data$A3:F5" ;
run;
proc transpose data=want
out=want_transposed
name=date;
id A;
run;
Thanks!

Answer 1

A data row that is split over several segments or blocks of rows in an Excel file can be imported raw into SAS and then processed into a categorical form using a DATA Step.
In this example sample data is put into a text file and imported such that the column names are generic VAR-1 ... VAR-n. The generic import is then processed across each row, outputting one SAS data set row per import cell.
The column names in each segment are retained within a temporary array an updated whenever a blank book id is encountered.
* mock data;
filename demo "%sysfunc(pathname(WORK))\demo.txt";
data _null_;
input;
file demo;
put _infile_;
datalines;
., 31Dec, 01Jan, 02Jan, 03Jan, 04Jan
Book_id1, 23 , 24 , 35 , 43 , 98
Book_id2, 3 , 4 , 5 , 4 , 1
., 05Jan, 06Jan, 07Jan, 08Jan, 09Jan
Book_id1, 14 , 100 , 30 , 23 , 58
Book_id2, 2 , 7 , 3 , 8 , 6
run;
* mock import;
proc import replace out=work.haveraw file=demo dbms=csv;
getnames = no;
datarow = 1;
run;
ods listing;
proc print data=haveraw;
run;
When Excel import is be made to look like this:
Obs VAR1 VAR2 VAR3 VAR4 VAR5 VAR6
1 31Dec 01Jan 02Jan 03Jan 04Jan
2 Book_id1 23 24 35 43 98
3 Book_id2 3 4 5 4 1
4
5 05Jan 06Jan 07Jan 08Jan 09Jan
6 Book_id1 14 100 30 23 58
7 Book_id2 2 7 3 8 6
It can be processed in a transposing way, outputting only the name value pairs corresponding to a original cell.
data have (keep=bookid date value);
set haveraw;
array dates(1000) $12 _temporary_ ;
array vars var:;
if missing(var1) then do;
do index = 2 by 1 while (index <= dim(vars));
if not missing(vars(index)) then
dates(index) = put(index-1,z3.) || '_' || vars(index); * adjust as you see fit;
else
dates(index) = '';
end;
end;
else do;
bookid = var1;
do index = 2 by 1 while (index <= dim(vars));
date = dates(index);
value = input(vars(index),??best12.);
output;
end;
end;
run;