topic Re: Manipulating the first character in a string in SAS Data Management

Manipulating the first character in a string

EinarRoed — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 10:06:05 GMT

Hi,

I have an input table with a character column called "CUST_NO". It includes values such as these:

"4512648"

"5487512"

"6123658"

"6548756"

The first character will always be 4, 5, or 6.

What I want to do is to reduce the the first character of each by 3. So the output should be like this:

"1512648"

"2487512"

"3123658"

"3548756"

I figure I might use an expression which starts this way:

firstchar = substr(CUST_NO,1,1)

case

when firstchar = "4" then firstchar = "1"

when firstchar = "5" then firstchar = "2"

when firstchar = "6" then firstchar = "3"

end

However, I can't think of an elegant way to proceed after this. Can you please advise me?

Re: Manipulating the first character in a string

Jagadishkatam — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 10:21:18 GMT

data have;

input CUST_NO $;

firstchar=put(input(substr(CUST_NO,1,1),8.)-3,1.)||strip(substr(CUST_NO,2));

cards;

4512648

5487512

6123658

6548756

;

Thanks,

Jagadish

Re: Manipulating the first character in a string

EinarRoed — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 10:31:25 GMT

Thanks, you're a top-quality Jagadish.

Re: Manipulating the first character in a string

data_null__ — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 10:46:18 GMT

Alternatively you could translate the character digits and use substr on the left side of =.

data first;
   input x :$quote16.; 
   substr(x,1,1)=translate(first(x),'123','456');
   cards; 
"4512648"
"5487512"
"6123658"
"6548756"
;;;;
   run; 
proc print; 
   run;