topic Re: Does • exist? in SAS Programming

Does • exist?

AlexMoreton — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:22:06 GMT

Hi all,

I've been going through my data and realized that I have " • " scattered in my strings...

I have been trying to get rid of it via TRANWRD. But it just makes no difference...

I then used translate to translate it to my other characters, no changes at all but no error in my log...

does anyone know how to remove it?

Thank you

Re: Does • exist?

novinosrin — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:32:39 GMT

get rid of '.' ? sure?

new_var=compress(var,'.');

Re: Does • exist?

novinosrin — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:34:07 GMT

Oh well, " • " looks certainly different to " . "

Re: Does • exist?

error_prone — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:39:21 GMT

Posting code is necessary to explain possible mistakes. Use compress instead of tranwrd to remove unwanted chars.

Re: Does • exist?

Astounding — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:43:37 GMT

As best I can tell, the character in question has a hex code of 95. So you should be able to convert those to blanks using:

var = translate(var, '20'x, '95'x);

You might have to test to see if that's actually the right hex code, since the text has been copied a couple of times before I get to test it. So here's the type of program you can use:

data _null_;

ch = " • ";

put ch $hex8.;

ch = translate(ch, '20'x, '95'x);

put ch $hex8.;

run;

Re: Does • exist?

art297 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 18:01:23 GMT

Another alternative, rather than guessing what the ascii code might be, is simply to copy and paste it into either the translate or compress function. e.g.:

data have;
  length string $80.;
  input string &;
  cards;
this is • that was
my oh • oh my
;

data test;
  set have;
  string=compbl(compress(string,'•'));
run;

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

Re: Does • exist?

AlexMoreton — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 10:40:39 GMT

Thank you Art!

That worked!