topic prxmatch, maximum number of matches not working in SAS Programming

prxmatch, maximum number of matches not working

surajmetha55 — Tue, 21 May 2019 17:35:11 GMT

I am trying following code:

data new;
 	input id Value $;
datalines;
1 50
2 1
3 500
4 56
5 1000
;
run;

data new1;
 	set new;
 		where prxmatch('/\d{2}/',Value);
run;

After submitting above code, I am getting following output:


According to following documentation
https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings/proceedings/sugi29/265-29.pdf

Expected output:

id Value
1 50
4 56

But in output I am getting 2 digit number and greater then 2 digit number even-though 
my pattern is only for 2 digit number

Re: prxmatch, maximum number of matches not working

PGStats — Tue, 21 May 2019 17:58:09 GMT

Your pattern matches any string that includes at least two consecutive digits. Try this instead:

/^\d{2}\s*$/

Re: prxmatch, maximum number of matches not working

surajmetha55 — Wed, 22 May 2019 06:01:47 GMT

Tried with following changes but getting same output as shown in above screen shot. (two consecutive digits and greater then two consecutive digits )

where prxmatch('/\d{2}\s*$/',Value);

Re: prxmatch, maximum number of matches not working

andreas_lds — Wed, 22 May 2019 06:27:43 GMT

Interesting, i get the expected results:

36         data new1;
37            set new;
38            where prxmatch('/^\d{2}\s*$/', Value);
39            put _all_;
40         run;

id=1 Value=50 _ERROR_=0 _N_=1
id=4 Value=56 _ERROR_=0 _N_=2
NOTE: There were 2 observations read from the data set WORK.NEW.
      WHERE PRXMATCH('/^\d{2}\s*$/', Value);

Re: prxmatch, maximum number of matches not working

ErikLund_Jensen — Wed, 22 May 2019 10:27:33 GMT

Hi @surajmetha55

The devil is in the detail. You omitted the little caret-symbol ^ from @andreas_lds 's code.