topic Re: Count with modifer in SAS Programming

Count with modifer

pavank — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 06:17:51 GMT

Hi Guys

Here count function modifier 't' or 'T' doesn't trim trailing blanks where i was wrong please fix error

data count;
name="Tokyo Olympics 2020          ";
x=count(name,'a');
x1=count(name,'a','i');
x2=count(name,'2','T');
xlength=length(x);
x1ength=length(x1);
x2length=length(x2);

run;

Re: Count with modifer

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 06:32:23 GMT

COUNT returns a number; using LENGTH on a number will cause that number to be converted to character using the BEST. format (IIRC, BEST12.).

Re: Count with modifer

pavank — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 06:36:57 GMT

data count;
name="Tokyo Olympics 2020          ";
x=count(name,'a');
x1=count(name,'a','i');
x2=count(name,'a','T');
xlength=length(x);
x1ength=length(x1);
x2length=length(x2);


run;

x2length result length is 12 even if I use letter 'a'

Re: Count with modifer

andreas_lds — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 06:45:16 GMT

I will just repeat what @Kurt_Bremser already said:

count returns a number
using the function length on a number is not possible, so sas converts the number into a string (see the log: "Numeric values have been converted to character values")
sas uses the format best12 to convert the number => the string will always have the length of 12.

Re: Count with modifer

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 07:32:58 GMT

@pavank wrote:

data count;
name="Tokyo Olympics 2020          ";
x=count(name,'a');
x1=count(name,'a','i');
x2=count(name,'a','T');
xlength=length(x);
x1ength=length(x1);
x2length=length(x2);


run;

x2length result length is 12 even if I use letter 'a'

That's because the BEST12. format results in a string with the number right-adjusted, and LENGTH counts all characters up to the last non-blank character, including all leading blanks.