how to tell SAS to run a PROC FREQ for a specific state, like NY?

Answer 1

Assume that the SAS data contains a variable called 'state' and the SAS data set called 'statedata'. Say that the variable named 'state' contains a value called 'NY'. Furthermore, let's assume that there are two variables (x and y) that you're interested to use to construct a 2-way table. SAS code would be

Method 1:

proc freq data=
statedata(where=(state='NY'));
tables x*y /chisq;
run;

proc freq data=statedata;
tables x*y /chisq;
where state in ('NY');
run;

Answer 2

Proc Freq

Answer 3

Technically, it's considered bad programming practice to include a where clause in a report procedure. I've seen a case (long ago) where a particular where clause used in proc freq actually gave different (and incorrect) results relative to a subsetting where clause given in a preceeding proc sort creating an output dataset for use in the proc freq. so...

proc sort data=x out=y;
by state;
where trim(left(upcase(state)))='NY'
run;

proc freq data=y;
table whatever;
quit;

Note that the parameters within the where clause attempt to 'steer' the values to prevent unexpected variation (e.g., "Ny" or " NY").