topic Re: extract string that varies in length and number of delimiters in SAS Programming

extract string that varies in length and number of delimiters

jenim514 — Mon, 07 May 2018 21:11:16 GMT

Hi all,

If I have values that consistently are in this type of layout- (that is a wanted character string between ( x) and a (char date.)..

AE: (6) urinary tract infection 22-NOV-2017

Is there a way to just extract the 'urinary tract infection' to a new variable?

Help is appreciated!

Re: extract string that varies in length and number of delimiters

novinosrin — Mon, 07 May 2018 22:17:05 GMT

data have;
input var $80.;
call scan(var,-1,position, length,' ');
k1=index(var,')');
need= substr(var,index(var,')')+1,position-k1-1);
drop k: position length;
cards;
AE: (6) urinary tract infection 22-NOV-2017
;

Re: extract string that varies in length and number of delimiters

jenim514 — Mon, 07 May 2018 22:40:15 GMT

@novinosrin thank you! HUGE help!!!

Re: extract string that varies in length and number of delimiters

SuryaKiran — Tue, 08 May 2018 00:21:25 GMT

If you data looks like the example you showed i.e. you have lowercase for the string you want to extract remaning other than lowercase then you can use COMPRESS() function with "k" (keeps the characters in the list instead of removing them) and "l" modifier (adding lowercase to list).

DATA HAVE;
STRING="AE: (6) urinary tract infection 22-NOV-2017";
Want_Str=STRIP(COMPRESS(STRING,"","kl"));
run;

Re: extract string that varies in length and number of delimiters

Andygray — Tue, 08 May 2018 03:23:06 GMT

@jenim514 You could mark the question as answered and close the thread