topic Re: Problem with SCAN function? in SAS Programming

Problem with SCAN function?

TimH — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:15:34 GMT

I have fields which contain either "String1" or they contain "String1\String2" with "\" as the delimiter between the two strings.

I input the field with INPUT @col WORKFLD $20.

I then have this code (following the example in the documentation for getting the first and last word in the string

REALFLD1 = SCAN(WORKFLD,1,'\');

IF INDEX(WORKFLID,'\') > 0
THEN
REALFLD2 = SCAN(WORKFLD,-1,'\');

It seems to work "backward" - when WORKFLD contains "OPSYS\KNMACTH" the results are REALFLD1 = KNMACTH and REALFLD2 = OPSYS .

If I switch the '1' and the '-1' I get what I want but I'm not sure why it is working this way...

Re: Problem with SCAN function?

SwagatPatil — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:23:22 GMT

If you want first and last word another column just use catx with scan

catx('-',scan(col1,1,'/'),scan(col1,-1,'/'))

Re: Problem with SCAN function?

TimH — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:30:34 GMT

No, I want the two values to be in two separate fields, not concatenated.

Please note the slash is '\' and not this '/' (which is one of the default delimiters for the function)

Re: Problem with SCAN function?

Tom — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:51:23 GMT

Works fine for me.

511   data test;
512     have= "OPSYS\KNMACTH"  ;
513     first=scan(have,1,'\');
514     last=scan(have,-1,'\');
515     put (_all_) (=);
516   run;

have=OPSYS\KNMACTH first=OPSYS last=KNMACTH

Re: Problem with SCAN function?

ballardw — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:53:20 GMT

When I run your code, after correcting the WORKFLID to WORKFLD with

237  data junk;
238     WORKFLD="OPSYS\KNMACTH";
239     REALFLD1 = SCAN(WORKFLD,1,'\');
240     IF INDEX(WORKFLD,'\') > 0 THEN
241      REALFLD2 = SCAN(WORKFLD,-1,'\');
242     put _all_;
243  run;

WORKFLD=OPSYS\KNMACTH REALFLD1=OPSYS REALFLD2=KNMACTH _ERROR_=0 _N_=1

I do not get your stated result.

Since you likely did not paste code from your actual program then it is likely that you either 1) reversed the names of the REALFLD variables OR used the 1 and -1 in the incorrect code location.

Re: Problem with SCAN function?

TimH — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 19:35:26 GMT

Ooops.. In my original code (not the 'pseudo code' I posted here) I had REALFLD1 and REALFLD2 reversed as they were close in spelling. Sorry for wasting everyone's brain time.