Returns the upper bound of an array
Category: Array
HBOUND < n >( array- name )
HBOUND ( array-name , bound-n )
n
specifies the dimension for which you want to know the upper bound. If no n value is specified, the HBOUND function returns the upper bound of the first dimension of the array.
array-name
specifies the name of an array defined previously in the same DATA step.
bound-n
specifies the dimension for which you want to know the upper bound. Use bound-n only if n is not specified.
The HBOUND function returns the upper bound of a one-dimensional array or the upper bound of a specified dimension of a multidimensional array. Use HBOUND in array processing to avoid changing the upper bound of an iterative DO group each time you change the bounds of the array. HBOUND and LBOUND can be used together to return the values of the upper and lower bounds of an array dimension.
HBOUND returns the literal value of the upper bound of an array dimension.
DIM always returns a total count of the number of elements in an array dimension.
Note: This distinction is important when the lower bound of an array dimension has a value other than 1 and the upper bound has a value other than the total number of elements in the array dimension.
In this example, HBOUND returns the upper bound of the dimension, a value of 5. Therefore, SAS repeats the statements in the DO loop five times.
array big{5} weight sex height state city; do i=1 to hbound(big5); more SAS statements ; end;
This example shows two ways of specifying the HBOUND function for multidimensional arrays. Both methods return the same value for HBOUND, as shown in the table that follows the SAS code example.
array mult{2:6,4:13,2} mult1-mult100;
Syntax | Alternative Syntax | Value |
---|---|---|
HBOUND(MULT) | HBOUND(MULT,1) | 6 |
HBOUND2(MULT) | HBOUND(MULT,2) | 13 |
HBOUND3(MULT) | HBOUND(MULT,3) | 2 |
Functions:
'DIM Function' on page 499
'LBOUND Function' on page 624
Statements:
'ARRAY Statement' on page 1100
'Array Reference Statement' on page 1105
'Array Processing' in SAS Language Reference: Concepts