topic Separating text into separate variables in New SAS User

Separating text into separate variables

marleeakerson — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 19:10:32 GMT

Hello,

I have a variable with first and last names and I am trying to separate them into two separate variables. See the sample data below:

Name

Smith Joe

Reynolds Jack

Anderson Amy

But I want the data to read:

Last Name First Name

Smith Joe

Reynolds Jack

Anderson Amy

Does anyone have any advice for me? Thank you!

Re: Separating text into separate variables

PaigeMiller — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 19:18:34 GMT

The SCAN function will do this for the simple cases you have shown.

firstname=scan(name,2);
lastname=scan(name,1);

But things get very confusing if the last name has a space in it, or if the first name has a space in it. So, the above really doesn't constitute a real-word solution. You need to define the problem much more precisely.