topic Isolate records with double blank, then comma; or comma then double blank in SAS Programming

Isolate records with double blank, then comma; or comma then double blank

Walternate — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 19:56:43 GMT

Hi,

I have a name variable where most values are Last, First.

I want to examine records where the name value contains two blanks followed by a comma OR a comma followed by two blanks (ie, the comma has two blanks on at least one side). This is what I have set up:

proc print data = have;

var namevar;

where index(namevar, ',')>0 and (index(namevar, ' ,') >0 or index(namevar, ', ')>0));

run;

The step ran but did not produce what I thought it would. I didn't see what I was looking for: a double blank followed by a comma, or a comma followed by a double blank. Instead I only saw one or zero blanks adjacent to the columns.

Should this be working? If not, is there a different approach?

Re: Isolate records with double blank, then comma; or comma then double blank

novinosrin — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 20:02:13 GMT

Hi @Walternate Try Regex. A sample data for us to play with would have been nice.

For two blanks followed by a comma

Regex would be : \s (any white space) quantifier needed is 2 , so regex {2} followed by a comma ,

Something like the below

\s{2},

Re: Isolate records with double blank, then comma; or comma then double blank

PGStats — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 20:55:13 GMT

proc print data = have;
var namevar;
where prxMatch("/  ,|,  /", namevar);
run;