topic Re: how to concatinate all variables of first letter in SAS Programming

how to concatenate all variables of first letter

thanikondharish — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:48:41 GMT

data name ;
input (v1-v5) ($) ;
cards ;

john peter max jann kiyaa
;

how to concatenate all variables of first letter like below

jpmjk

Re: how to concatinate all variables of first letter

muratatik — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 08:39:41 GMT

data name ;
input (v1-v5) ($) ;
array _v(5) $ v1-v5;
length want $8.;
do i= 1 to 5;
want=catt(want,substr(_v(i),1,1));
end;
drop i;
cards ;
john peter max jann kiyaa
;
run;

Re: how to concatinate all variables of first letter

ChrisNZ — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 22:31:50 GMT

This works too.

data name ;
  input (V1-V5) ($) ;
  array _V(5) $1 V1-V5;   
  WANT=_V[1]||_V[2]||_V[3]||_V[4]||_V[5];
cards ;
john peter max jann kiyaa
run;

@mkeintz Calling on your PDV expertise. Do you understand why

WANT=cats(_V[1],_V[2],_V[3],_V[4],_V[5]);

WANT=cats(of _V[*]);

don't work?

Re: how to concatinate all variables of first letter

muratatik — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 11:47:21 GMT

Hi @ChrisNZ;

I tried your solution but i didn't get the result.

Your Code Result: jomjk

It looks like _V[2] is John's second letter 'o'.

Re: how to concatinate all variables of first letter

ChrisNZ — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 21:11:36 GMT

Wow this is crazy. Add

putlog _V[1]= _V[2]= _V[3]= _V[4]= _V[5]=;

and you get

V1=j V2=p V3=m V4=j V5=k

Even worse, add

WANT=_V[1]||_V[2]||_V[2]||_V[3]||_V[4]||_V[5];

and you get

WANT=jopmjk

Do you have the same behaviour?

Re: how to concatinate all variables of first letter

muratatik — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 06:33:41 GMT

Yes exactly the same result 🙂

But I didnt get it.

I looked some documents but couldn't find anything.

Re: how to concatinate all variables of first letter

ChrisNZ — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 20:36:07 GMT

This looks like a defect. Or at least something I don't understand. I'll contact tech support.

Re: how to concatinate all variables of first letter

ChrisNZ — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:47:30 GMT

Update: R&D are still investigating, but I dug a bit depper.

I was puzzled as to why function cats() should get a different value (the full string)? What’s special about it?

That quirkiness got me thinking. If some functions get a special treatment and can ignore variable length (and why should they?),

which other functions do this? Is there at least consistency about functions?

The answer is no. I tested a few functions and the behaviour varies (as seen in the suffix of the names).

A_ALL=put (_V[2],$upcase20. );

B_ONE=putc (_V[2],'$upcase20.');

C_ALL=count (_V[2],'e' );

D_ALL=countc (_V[2],'e' );

E_ONE=left (_V[2] );

F_ALL=length (_V[2] );

G_ALL=lengthn (_V[2] );

H_ALL=find (_V[2],'e' );

I_ALL=index (_V[2],'e' );

J_ONE=lowcase (_V[2] );

K_ONE=propcase (_V[2] );

L_ONE=upcase (_V[2] );

M_ALL=reverse (_V[2] );

N_ALL=right (_V[2] );

O_ONE=trim (_V[2] );

P_ONE=scan (_V[2],1 );

Q_ONE=strip (_V[2] );

R_ALL=tranwrd (_V[2],'e','E' );

S_ONE=translate(_V[2],'x','p' );

T_ALL=quote (_V[2] );

U_ONE=compress (_V[2] );

V_ONE=compbl (_V[2] );

W_ALL=prxmatch ('/e/',_V[2] );

X_ALL=prxchange('s/p/x/',1,_V[2] );

Y_ALL_THEN_ONE=substr(_V[2],3 );

So put() and putn() don’t behave the same. Left() and right() don’t either, like tranwrd() and translate().

Substr() does a bit of both (reads the full string but returns a one-character length result).

To be continued...

Re: how to concatinate all variables of first letter

ChrisNZ — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 22:13:46 GMT

Final update.

After weeks of tech support talking to R&D, the conclusion is... drum roll... "Don't do this". 🙂

No explanation, simply:

The ARRAY definition attempts to 'trick' or change the length of the variables to a length of 1. This is not a recommended practice. 8><. The recommended method would be to use SUBSTR function.

Or even the FIRST function I might add.

There we go. Case closed. 🙂

Re: how to concatenate all variables of first letter

singhsahab — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 03:15:44 GMT

data want;
length newvar $5.;
input (v1-v5) ($) ;
call catt(newvar,substr(v1,1,1),substr(v2,1,1),substr(v3,1,1),substr(v4,1,1),substr(v5,1,1));
cards ;
john peter max jann kiyaa
;
run;