topic Re: Remove leading zeros function? in SAS Programming

Remove leading zeros function?

SAS93 — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 17:06:36 GMT

I have two datasets I want to merge, keeping only the rows found in dataset 2; they have a common variable, weight in grams, but those variables aren't named or formatted (num/char) the same.

Dataset 1 has: Common CHAR $3

Dataset 2 has: CV NUM 4.

Something else I realized when looking at the variables sorted side by side, is that DS1 has an irregular number of leading zeros, depending on which observation it is, so I need a way to remove them so they can match.

Dataset	DS1	DS2 -- > what I want to match to

Lowest weight (grams)	0010	10
Highest weight (grams)	0865	865

Re: Remove leading zeros function?

Tom — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 17:14:49 GMT

You cannot match numbers to characters. It will be easier to convert the strings into numbers since there is no difference between 0010 and 10 as numbers.

proc sql;
create table want as
  select *
   from one inner join two
   on input(one.common,32.) = two.cv
;
quit;

Re: Remove leading zeros function?

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 17:15:28 GMT

You cannot have 4 digits in your dataset 1, as the variable is defined with a length of 3. Please review your question, and make sure that you get all types and attributes correct.

Re: Remove leading zeros function?

Tom — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 17:59:15 GMT

Because the strings posted included periods I assumed the information posted was the FORMATs attached to the variables and not the LENGTH of the variables. There is no need to include a period when specifying the LENGTH of a variable since a length can only be an integer. The format attached to a character variable does not modify the LENGTH of the values stored in the variable.

Re: Remove leading zeros function?

SAS93 — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 19:54:20 GMT

Thank you! That was a solution that was right under my nose, I just didn't see it..