Sometimes,
you need to combine data from two or more data sets into a single
observation in a new data set according to the values of a common
variable. When the data sources are two or more data sets that have
a common structure, you can use a match-merge to combine the data
sets. However, in some cases the data sources do not share a common
structure. When data sources do not have a common structure, you can
use a lookup table to match them. A lookup table is a table that contains
key values.
The technique that you
use to perform a table lookup is dependent on your data. This chapter
focuses on using multidimensional arrays to perform table lookups
and transposing SAS data sets in preparation for a match-merge.