Select highest 5 and lowest 5 values

Recently, i was asked this question. The question was, there is a data set with variable age with all distinct values. what's required is the top 5 and bottom 5 values of AGE variable.

In the first step, i will sort the data set in ascending order.

     PROC SORT DATA=SASHELP.CLASS OUT=CLASS ;

         BY AGE;

     RUN;

Once sorted, i will use the below data step to get the top 5 and bottom 5 values from the data set.

     DATA TEST;

           IF 0 THEN SET CLASS NOBS=NOBS;

           PUT NOBS;

           DO I=1 TO 5, NOBS-4 TO NOBS;

           SET CLASS POINT=I;

           OUTPUT;

           END;

           STOP;

     RUN;

In the first, i will use the IF condition to get the number of observations. Since the variable has distinct values and sorted, i will use the POINT option to pick the observations 1 to 5 and 15 to 19 which will give me the top 5 and bottom 5 values of the variable.

reference: http://bharathtn.blogspot.in/2016/12/select-highest-5-and-lowest-5-values.html?view=flipcard