topic Re: detecting if text correctly arranged in SAS Programming

detecting if text correctly arranged

kalbo — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 09:12:41 GMT

Hi I want to see if text values are correctly separated by a comma then space. However some values can start with SUPP__ and QNAM can contain a period (.) e.g. SUPPAE.START and QNAM.STOP.

For example these values are correctly arranged with a comma and single space:

SUBJID, SEQUENCE, SUPPAE.START, QNAM.STOP

SUBJID, START, SUPPCM.STOP

SUBJID, ID, QNAM.START

These are not correctly arranged and need to be detected:

SUBJID. SEQUENCE, SUPPAE.START. QNAM.STOP

SUBJID,START*SUPPCM.STOP

START; STOP;

START. STOP

I think we can use prxchange or similar prx funciton.

Thanks

Re: detecting if text correctly arranged

ChrisNZ — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 09:29:05 GMT

In other words, detect a space preceded by something other than comma, or a comma without following space?

if prxmatch('/[^,] |,\S/', trim(VAR));

Re: detecting if text correctly arranged

kalbo — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 09:34:53 GMT

Hi Chris, the string can contain any characters potentially and its possible no space was used e.g. WORD1,WORD2 or WORD1.WORD2.

Re: detecting if text correctly arranged

ChrisNZ — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 09:43:50 GMT

These 2 examples should be treated as expected:

The first is invalid, the second is valid.