topic Converting height in ft.in (character) to inches (numeric) in SAS Programming

Converting height in ft.in (character) to inches (numeric)

aabbccwyt — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 17:37:16 GMT

Hi all,

I have some datasets

1 ft 1 in
2ft2in
3 in
4in

And I want to convert all of them to numeric variables in inches.

Could anyone tell me how to do it, please? I'm confused because they have different units and spaces. Any hints would be helpful. Thank you in advance!

Re: Converting height in ft.in (character) to inches (numeric)

aabbccwyt — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 17:41:01 GMT

Here is what I have for now

Height = compress(Height);
	if findw(Height,'ft') > 0 then do;
	ft = input(scan(Height,1,"ft"),f1.);
	in = input(scan(Height,2,"in"),best.);
	Height = 12*ft + 1*in;
	else;
	Height = Height;
end;

It gives errors but I'm just wondering if this is the right way to go or if there are easier ones.

Re: Converting height in ft.in (character) to inches (numeric)

PaigeMiller — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 19:54:41 GMT

data heights;
    input text $char60.;
    cards;
1 ft 1 in
2ft2in
3 in
4in
;
data want;
    set heights;
    text=compress(text);
    location_ft=find(text,'ft','i');
    location_in=find(text,'in','i');
    if location_in>0 then do;
    	inches=scan(substr(text,1,location_in-1),-1,,'dk');
  	    inches_numeric=input(inches,2.);
	end;
    if location_ft>0 then do;
    	feet=scan(substr(text,1,location_ft-1),-1,,'dk');
    	feet_numeric=input(feet,2.);
	end;
	height=sum(inches_numeric,12*feet_numeric);
run;

Re: Converting height in ft.in (character) to inches (numeric)

andreas_lds — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 05:56:39 GMT

You could use a regular expression to extract the numbers from the string:

data want;
   set heights;
   
   length feet inch total 8;
   
   rx = prxparse('/((\d+)\s*ft)?\s*(\d+)\s*in/i');
   
   if prxmatch(rx, text) then do;
      feet = coalesce(input(prxposn(rx, 2, text), ?? best.), 0);
      inch = input(prxposn(rx, 3, text), ?? best.);
      
      total = sum(inch, feet * 12);
   end;
   else do;
      put 'Failed ' _n_;
   end;
   
   drop rx;
run;

Re: Converting height in ft.in (character) to inches (numeric)

s_lassen — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 09:10:31 GMT

With data like this

data have;                
  infile cards truncover; 
  input measure $10.;     
cards;                    
1 ft 1 in                 
2ft2in                    
3 in                      
4in                       
;run;

I would do it like this:

data want;                                       
  set have;                                      
  measure=upcase(measure);                       
  if countw(measure,' ','A')=2 then              
    inches=input(scan(measure,1,' ','A'),4.)*12+ 
           input(scan(measure,2,' ','A'),4.);    
  else if index(measure,'FT') then               
    inches=input(scan(measure,1,' ','A'),4.)*12; 
  else                                           
    inches=input(scan(measure,1,' ','A'),4.);    
run;

I put in the UPCASE function in case you have data like '12Ft' or so.