29Oct/090
SAS DIM function – Counting the elements in an array
The DIM function returns the number of literal elements in an array. It functions against multi-dimensional arrays as well as one-dimensional arrays.
1-dimensional array example
DIM(array_name)
Multi-dimensional array examples
DIM(m_array) -> returns the number of elements in the first dimension of the array
DIM5(m_array) -> returns the number of elements in the 5th dimension of the array
DIM(m_array, 5) -> returns the number of elements in the 5th dimension of the array
The classic use case for the DIM function is to return the number of elements in an array for the upper bound of a do loop process. Example:
array array_name(5) var1 var2 var3 var4 var5;
do i=1 to dim(array_name);
some SAS statements here
end;