topic Re: Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier? in SAS Programming

Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier?

novinosrin — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 13:44:55 GMT

Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier other than B to make it count from left to right for the below scenario? My eyes are failing to spot and catch the modifier

The expected count is 6

data _null_;
count=countw('a, b, c,,d, e,     ',   ','   );
put count=;/*this is not counting embedded one but is counting the trailing*/

count=countw('a, b, c,,d, e,     ',   ','   ,'t');
put count=;

count=countw('a, b, c,,d, e,     ',   ','   ,'m');
put count=;

count=countw('a, b, c,,d, e,     ',   ','   ,'b');
put count=;
run;

Re: Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier?

Tom — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 13:51:26 GMT

Use the M modifier to allow it to count the adjacent delimiters as indicating null values.

There are 7 words in your string, the last one is all blanks. If you want a result of 6 then subtract 1 from the normal result.

Re: Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier?

novinosrin — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 13:54:59 GMT

Thank you @Tom So no modifier available to exclude the trailing and yet count the consecutive ?

Re: Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier?

Tom — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 13:55:42 GMT

Why would you want to exclude data?

Re: Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier?

novinosrin — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 14:00:23 GMT

I agree to count with M and then minus is neat. But I just wanted to see/learn if there is a straight forward way(without having to manipulate ) to count from left to right with options only till the last delim. Hypothetically assuming the requirement is to count the number of words until the last delim.

Re: Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier?

Astounding — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 14:12:46 GMT

If you switch from COUNTW to COUNT, it's easy to count the number of commas.

Re: Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier?

novinosrin — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 14:18:15 GMT

Slick idea:)

Re: Countw T vs M modifier or please recommend the appropriate modifier?

Tom — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 14:21:33 GMT

@Astounding wrote:
If you switch from COUNTW to COUNT, it's easy to count the number of commas.

The problem with the COUNT() (or COUNTC()) function is that they do not offer the Q modifier to handle strings where the words contain the delimiter character.