topic Re: how to strip characters in SAS Programming

how to strip characters

Solly7 — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 08:29:30 GMT

Hi, i need help in removing characters from ninth value and remain with the first 8 characters. See below dummy data

work.names

Data have Data Want

matomese@rrrtrtr matomese

lucozade1rtrrrere lucozade

sollyseb+rytryr sollyseb

Re: how to strip characters

ed_sas_member — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 08:54:12 GMT

Hi @Solly7

You can try this:

Data have ;
	input var1 $30.;
	datalines;
matomese@rrrtrtr
lucozade1rtrrrere
sollyseb+rytryr
;
run;

/* If the length of the word to extract is always 8 */
data want;
	set have;
	var2 = substr(var1,1,8);
run;

/* Otherwise you can search for the first word delimited by any character which is not in the alphabet */
data want;
	set have;
	var2 = scan(var1,1,"","ak");
run;

NB: information on modifiers for the SCAN() function (like "ak") is available on: https://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=ds2ref&docsetTarget=p13adatt2vvhcxn1ext6w6eet24p.htm&docsetVersion=9.4&locale=en#n05sdv0n12bqn2n1973jozn2vzds

Best,

Re: how to strip characters

Solly7 — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 11:04:29 GMT

thank you so much

Re: how to strip characters

novinosrin — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 12:41:38 GMT

Hi @Solly7 If length of Var2 is going to be 8, all you need is define a compile time LENGTH statement and not bother with anything else .

For Example


Data have ;
	input var1 $30.;
	datalines;
matomese@rrrtrtr
lucozade1rtrrrere
sollyseb+rytryr
;
run;

data want;
 set have;
 length 	var2 $8;
 var2=var1;
run;