topic Hold the spaces while compress function in SAS Programming

Hold the spaces while compress function

SASdevAnneMarie — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 13:51:52 GMT

Hello Experts,

I'm wondering how to hold the spaces while using the compress function. The values of my variable is X='TYPE 1 INDEX 2'.

When I use compress(X||' '||'P3') I have 'TYPE1INDEX2 P3', I would like to have TYPE 1 INDEX 2 P3

There is some option for compress function please or, in this case, the STRIP function is better ?

Thank you for helping !

Re: Hold the spaces while compress function

maguiremq — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 12:21:18 GMT

I can't tell if this is what you want, but it seemed like a variant that's acceptable.

data have;
x = "TYPE 1 INDEX 2";
y = prxchange("s/(?<!\d)\s//", -1, x);
run;

Obs x y 
1 TYPE 1 INDEX 2 TYPE1 INDEX2

If you're unfamiliar with regular expressions, these resources will be helpful.

https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/lefunctionsref/n0r8h2fa8djqf1n1cnenrvm573br.htm

https://support.sas.com/rnd/base/datastep/perl_regexp/regexp-tip-sheet.pdf

Re: Hold the spaces while compress function

andreas_lds — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 12:53:00 GMT

@SASdevAnneMarie wrote:

Hello Experts,

I'm wondering how to hold the spaces while using the compress function. The values of my variable is X='TYPE 1 INDEX 2'.

When I use compress(X) I have 'TYPE1INDEX2'.

Thank you for helping !

But, why are you calling compress?

Re: Hold the spaces while compress function

AnujaNagpal — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 13:03:47 GMT

Can you share what are you expecting the output to look like? Compress might not be the right choice of function here based on what you are trying to do.

Re: Hold the spaces while compress function

Ksharp — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 13:29:11 GMT

It is depended on what you need after COMPRESS().

data have;
x = "TYPE 1 INDEX 2";
y = compress(x,' ','kw');
run;

Re: Hold the spaces while compress function

Oligolas — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:47:58 GMT

Hi,

You may be looking for this

compbl(X||' '||'P3')