You can use the following methods to count the number of missing values in SAS:

Method 1: Count Missing Values for Numeric Variables

proc meansdata=my_data
    NMISS;
run;

Method 2: Count Missing values for Character Variables

proc sql; 
    select nmiss(char1) as char1_miss, nmiss(char2) as char2_miss
    from my_data;
quit;

The following examples show how to use each method in practice with the following dataset in SAS:

/*create dataset*/
data my_data;
    input team $ pos $ rebounds assists;
    datalines;
A G 10 8
B F 4 .
. F 7 10
D C . 14
E F . 10
F G 12 7
G C . 11
;
run;

/*view dataset*/
proc printdata=my_data;

Example 1: Count Missing Values for Numeric Variables

We can use the following code to count the number of missing values for each of the numeric variables in the dataset:

/*count missing values for each numeric variable*/
proc meansdata=my_data
    NMISS;
run;

From the output we can see:

• There are 3 total missing values in the rebounds column.
• There is 1 total missing value in the assists column.

Example 2: Count Missing Values for Character Variables

We can use the following code to count the number of missing values for each of the character variables in the dataset:

/*count missing for each character variable*/
proc sql; 
    select nmiss(team) as team_miss, nmiss(pos) as pos_miss
    from my_data; 
quit;

From the output we can see:

• There is 1 missing value in the team column.
• There are 0 missing values in the pos column.

Note: You can find the complete documentation for the NMISS function .

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in SAS: