topic Re: Split a string with different size in SAS Programming

Split a string with different size

tritringuyen — Tue, 08 May 2018 22:03:23 GMT

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help me on this issue. I need a code to split a string into two different string and then merge them again. I am working on a Compustat variable which is about zipcode. However, a lot of zipcode is incorrect (I guess). I want 5 digit zipcode (character) while some values have only 4 or 3 characters. My strategy is to slip values into two part: first part has left-most two digits, and second part has the rest. For second part, I need to add missing "0" (add 2 zeros if second part has only 1 character; and add 1 zero if second part has 2 character). Then I need to add first part and second part together to have full zipcode.

The code should be generalised as most of zipcodes are correct with 5 digits (of course, I want to keep those zipcodes as they are).

Here is an example.

Have Want

0157 01057

427 42007

Thank you very much!

Best regards,

Thierry

Re: Split a string with different size

novinosrin — Tue, 08 May 2018 22:25:10 GMT

 data have;
 input var $;
 cards;
0157    
427     
;

data want;
set have;
if length(strip(var)) ne 5  then need=cats(substr(var,1,2),put(input(substr(var,3),8.),z3.));
run;

Re: Split a string with different size

ballardw — Tue, 08 May 2018 22:45:18 GMT

An example creating a new zip variable so you can verify that the result is as needed looking at your old zip.

Note that the result for two characters is going to be wrong as you did not provide a rule for that case.

data dummy;
   input zip $;
   if length(zip) < 5 then newzip=cats(substr(zip,1,2),put(input(substr(left(zip),3),best.),z3.));
   else newzip=zip;
datalines;
0157
427
12345
;
run;

I used <5 in case your actual data has Zip+4 values in it.

If this works for your data you could replace the Newzip variable in the IF statement with Zip and not need the else.

Re: Split a string with different size

tritringuyen — Tue, 08 May 2018 22:59:00 GMT

Thank you very much! It really works!

Re: Split a string with different size

tritringuyen — Tue, 08 May 2018 23:00:56 GMT

Thank you very much! Yes, zipcodes may have 4 digits at the end, but I dont need it. But the code is helpful.