topic Re: return observation by finding a character within a sentence in SAS Programming

return observation by finding a character within a sentence

lillymaginta — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 19:12:25 GMT

I want to return any observation that contains the word "med" in any place in a variable

id desc

1 one medication at a time

2 two medication at a time

3 none

output

Re: return observation by finding a character within a sentence

novinosrin — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 19:26:39 GMT

data have;
input ID   desc & $30. ;
cards;
1   one medication at a time
2   two medication at a time
3   none    
;

data want;
set have;
if find(desc,'med')>0;
run;

Re: return observation by finding a character within a sentence

PaigeMiller — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 22:52:44 GMT

If I may be so bold as to suggest an improvement to the code

if find(desc,'med','i')>0;

This finds the letters med regardless of whether they are uppercase or lowercase.

Re: return observation by finding a character within a sentence

novinosrin — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 23:15:23 GMT

@PaigeMiller wrote:

If I may be so bold as to suggest an improvement to the code

Of course stat champ sir. i always am in awe of your quantitative acumen on stats domain. Fall qtr starts tomorrow as PCA, logistic will go full throttle.Will reach out for guidance and help on that thread https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Statistical-Procedures/Requesting-guidance-for-Principal-component-analysis-amp-Factor/m-p/487828#M25306. 🙂 have a great evening

Re: return observation by finding a character within a sentence

ChrisNZ — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 02:52:24 GMT

> I want to return any observation that contains the word "med" in any place in a variable

"med" is not a word in your example, just a substring. "medication" is a word.

Looking for words is different than looking for strings. Be careful and exact when phrasing your questions.

Re: return observation by finding a character within a sentence

s_lassen — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 07:44:20 GMT

Another possibility is to use a WHERE clause. May be faster:

data want;
  set have;
  where desc like '%med%';
run;

Or, if you want both upper and lowercase:

data want;
  set have;
  where upcase(desc) like '%MED%';
run;

Re: return observation by finding a character within a sentence

lillymaginta — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 12:34:41 GMT

Thank you, the upper/lower case addition is much needed!