topic Re: adding space in SAS Programming

adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 18:36:59 GMT

Hi all. Hopefully an easy question, for a Friday afternoon. A data set I read in has strings of numbers that look like this, this is one column in text format.

31.8 (29.7-33.9)

This is, for example, a rate and the confidence interval. i want to add a space before and after the dash, to make it look like this

31.8 (29.7 - 33.9)

Is this easy to do? Say the variable is "rate_ci".

Re: adding space

PeterClemmensen — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 18:47:59 GMT

Use the Tranwrd Function

data _null_;
   n  = "31.8 (29.7-33.9)";
   nn = tranwrd(n, "-", " - ");
   put n = / nn =;
run;

Result:

n=31.8 (29.7-33.9)
nn=31.8 (29.7 - 33.9)

Re: adding space

JosvanderVelden — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 18:47:41 GMT

Yes it's easy. You could for replace the '-' with ' - '. There are several ways to do that. You can use sas functions or if you prefer you can use regular expressions. One example is in the thread https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Find-And-Replace-within-a-string/td-p/45104.
Best regards, Jos

Re: adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 18:58:52 GMT

Ah, i didn't give enough information. It's not just this number, there are a bunch of numbers, all having the same format. I want to change them all.

Re: adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 18:59:51 GMT

Ah, sorry, i didn't give enough information. It's not just this number, there are a bunch of numbers, all having the same format. I want to change them all.

Re: adding space

Cynthia_sas — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 19:01:55 GMT

Hi:

What code have you tried? Is there ONLY 1 dash or hyphen in the character string. Is the length of the variable big enough to add 2 characters to the value? Here's one possibility but it will only work if there is exactly 1 dash in the value:

Cynthia

Re: adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 19:03:21 GMT

Hi. Sorry to say I can't follow the example in the thread. How would I use a sas function? Thanks.

Re: adding space

Reeza — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 19:05:48 GMT

Please show a more representative example of your data.

@geneshackman wrote:
Ah, sorry, i didn't give enough information. It's not just this number, there are a bunch of numbers, all having the same format. I want to change them all.

Re: adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 19:25:42 GMT

Group Category rate low high rate_ci
Gender Male 31.4 28.5 34.4 31.4 (28.5-34.4)
Gender Female 31.4 29.1 33.7 31.4 (29.1-33.7)
Gender Female 31.5 24.4 38.6 31.5 (24.4-38.6)

Re: adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 19:28:47 GMT

Group Category rate low high rate_ci
Gender Male 31.4 28.5 34.4 31.4 (28.5-34.4)
Gender Female 31.4 29.1 33.7 31.4 (29.1-33.7)
Gender Female 31.5 24.4 38.6 31.5 (24.4-38.6)

Re: adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 19:30:00 GMT

sorry, i can't seem to get it to show up with the columns lined up.

Re: adding space

Reeza — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 19:58:53 GMT

How did you generate this table? Did you use a macro or data step? I'm guessing going back and fixing the code that generated this table is the right place to fix the issue and would be as simple as adding spaces in the CATX function most likely.

Re: adding space

Reeza — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 19:59:54 GMT

Use the code block to ensure your data shows up as needed or ideally create a data step as noted here: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/How-to-create-a-data-step-version-of-your-data-AKA-generate/ta-p/258712

Re: adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 20:05:44 GMT

I'm reading in a data set someone else created.

Re: adding space

Tom — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 20:06:29 GMT

@geneshackman wrote:
Group Category rate low high rate_ci
Gender Male 31.4 28.5 34.4 31.4 (28.5-34.4)
Gender Female 31.4 29.1 33.7 31.4 (29.1-33.7)
Gender Female 31.5 24.4 38.6 31.5 (24.4-38.6)

Let's assume you are trying to show us what the dataset HAVE looks like. And that the last column in your listing is the variable name RATE_CI. So to create a new dataset named WANT with the corrected version of RATE_CI run code like this:

data want;
  set have;
  rate_ci = tranwrd(rate_ci,'-',' - ');
run;

Check the results and make sure that adding the two extra space characters didn't cause it to run out of room to store the full string. That is make sure the right parenthesis haven't disappeared in the new dataset.

Re: adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 20:17:42 GMT

Thanks!

Re: adding space

geneshackman — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 20:18:39 GMT

Thanks very much! This was what I wanted.