topic Re: Contains statement can't be located in SAS EG in SAS Programming

Contains statement can't be located in SAS EG

cf8261a — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 00:55:25 GMT

I am trying to run a PROC SQL statement with a contains statement, but the log keeps saying:

ERROR: Function CONTAINS could not be located.

Is contains not a valid function that can be used in proc sql steps?

Re: Contains statement can't be located in SAS EG

SASKiwi — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 01:06:53 GMT

Posting an error message without the code that caused it leaves us guessing what you are doing. Please post the offending code.

Re: Contains statement can't be located in SAS EG

cf8261a — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 01:10:21 GMT

proc sql;

select Reason from Active where contains(Reason, 'opportunity');

run; quit;

ERROR: Function CONTAINS could not be located.

Here is that code snippet

Re: Contains statement can't be located in SAS EG

SASKiwi — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 01:16:05 GMT

proc sql;

select Reason from Active where Reason contains 'opportunity';

run; quit;

CONTAINS isn't a function.

Re: Contains statement can't be located in SAS EG

Reeza — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 02:58:13 GMT

The FIND or INDEX function can be used in place of CONTAINS or you can fix the syntax as noted by @SASKiwi

Re: Contains statement can't be located in SAS EG

whymath — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 05:21:55 GMT

And you can replace it by "?"：

proc sql;
  select Reason from Active where Reason ? 'opportunity';
quit;

Re: Contains statement can't be located in SAS EG

AMSAS — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 11:20:08 GMT

To add some context to @SASKiwi reply

The syntax @cf8261a had for contains makes SAS think you are referring to a function (e.g. function_name(argument#1,..., argument#n)

The error message is correct "contains" is not a function it is the CONTAINS Operator and the correct syntax is:

sql_expression <NOT> CONTAINS sql_expression

Re: Contains statement can't be located in SAS EG

cf8261a — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 16:39:09 GMT

Thank you everyone for all of the helpful comments!