topic Re: Adding zeros onto character values in SAS Programming

Adding zeros onto character values

tesu — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:18:24 GMT

data have;

input x $;

cards;

3mn8

s27

;run;

Now I have to create a variable y of length=6, such as:

000024

000001

003mn8

0000s27

000025

How can I do this? Any help appreciated!

Re: Adding zeros onto character values

Astounding — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:28:23 GMT

y = '000000';

substr(y, 7-length(x)) = x;

But there better not be any blank values for X, or any longer than 6 characters.

Good luck.

Re: Adding zeros onto character values

Linlin — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:30:51 GMT

data have;
     input x $;
     cards;
     24
     1
     3mn8
     s27
     25
;
data want;
set have;
do _n_=1 to 6-length(x);
x=cats('0',x);
end;
run;
proc print;run;
                                             Obs      x

                                             1     000024
                                             2     000001
                                             3     003mn8
                                             4     000s27
                                             5     000025

Re: Adding zeros onto character values

Haikuo — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:43:54 GMT

Or this:

data have;

input x $;

cards;

3mn8

s27

;

data want;

set have;

x=repeat('0',6-length(x))||left(x);

run;

proc print;run;

Regards,

Haikuo

Re: Adding zeros onto character values

Astounding — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:19:24 GMT

There's a pitfall using REPEAT. It starts with your first parameter, then repeats it an ADDITIONAL number of times. You will get one more zero than you bargained for!

Re: Adding zeros onto character values

Haikuo — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:27:22 GMT

Aha! Good catch! I did NOT know that. And I am sorry I did not count it either.

I guess OP should know how to modify my code to overcome this pitfall.

Haikuo

Re: Adding zeros onto character values

Ksharp — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:52:52 GMT

WOW, so many brilliant solutions , Just want to add another solution.

data have;
  input x : $4.;
  cards;
  24
  1
  3mn8
  s27
  25
;
run;
data want;
 length x $ 6;
 set have;
 xx=translate(right(x),'0',' ');
run;

Ksharp