topic Re: How two remove 0 from first position in SAS Programming

How two remove 0 from first position

Shrij — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 11:24:49 GMT

I have three columns were the data should be in 2 or three figures but the should not start with a 0, but i have a few values where the figure is of 2 digits but with a zero for example :

DIBP

82
86
85
084
85
86
083

How do i remove the zero's

Re: How two remove 0 from first position

gamotte — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 12:06:08 GMT

Are those columns of a SAS dataset ?

If so, does this mean that values are stored as character variables ?

Why not use a numeric format since your data is of numeric nature ?

Re: How two remove 0 from first position

Tom — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 12:42:14 GMT

Use SUBSTR() function. Either start from the 1st or the 2nd character depending on whether it starts with zero or not.

DIBP=substr(DIBP,1+DIBP=:'0');

Re: How two remove 0 from first position

Ksharp — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 12:55:07 GMT

data have;
input DIBP $;
want=prxchange('s/^0+//',1,dibp);
cards;
82
86
85
084
85
86
083
;
run;

Re: How two remove 0 from first position

Reeza — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 15:15:18 GMT

I'm with @gamotte, the type of your data is more important. Numeric variables do not have a leading 0 by default, so I'm guessing it's character. If that's the case and you want to do any math with these values you'll also need a type conversion and if you're doing that you can avoid dealing with the leading 0 at all.