topic Re: Does variable length affect the outcome of INDEX function? in SAS Programming

Does variable length affect the outcome of INDEX function?

xyxu — Mon, 11 May 2020 14:47:27 GMT

My code returns unexpected result as follows:

x = index(lowcase(security_name), lowcase("alltel communications"));
x2 = index(lowcase(security_name), lowcase(name_holding_clean));

Shouldn't x=x2? My guess is that it's related to the length of name_holding_clean, but not sure how to deal with it.

Re: Does variable length affect the outcome of INDEX function?

ballardw — Mon, 11 May 2020 14:51:20 GMT

Most of the functions such as LOWCASE when used as a parameter to another function return the result padded with blanks to length of the variable.

Try

x2 = index(lowcase(security_name), strip( lowcase(name_holding_clean) ) );

Re: Does variable length affect the outcome of INDEX function?

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 11 May 2020 14:54:37 GMT

See Maxim 46.

Re: Does variable length affect the outcome of INDEX function?

xyxu — Mon, 11 May 2020 15:04:56 GMT

You are right, thanks!

Why LOWCASE does not pad with blanks when the I copy the string, instead of using a variable as input?

Re: Does variable length affect the outcome of INDEX function?

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 11 May 2020 15:15:29 GMT

It takes the length of the source you supply. With a literal, it is the length of the string as written, with a variable, the defined length of the variable.

Re: Does variable length affect the outcome of INDEX function?

Tom — Mon, 11 May 2020 15:31:21 GMT

Note that the LOWCASE() function calls has nothing to do with this issue.

SAS stores character variables as fixed length. If you assign a value that is shorter than the max then it is padded with spaces. If you assign a value that is longer it is truncated.