topic removing a character from variable value in SAS Programming

removing a character from variable value

Aexor — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 18:18:32 GMT

I have a table ABC . ABC is having a column ONE .

Column one is having value like this

month_num week_in_month bc_type cycle event_daysnum event_flag SEGMENT_CD BRAND_SEGMENT_CD SUBBRAND_CD FLAVOR_CD LH_CATEGORY_CD LH_MARKET_SEGMENT_CD LH_UMBRELLA_BRAND_CD LH_MATERIAL_BRAND_CD LH_SUBGRP_CD LH_MATERIAL_VARIANT_CD CUSTOMER_HIERARCHY_LVL1_CD

I need to remove the part MN_Natural_san_CD , but keeping the rest of the table intact

please help.

Tried below code

data new;
set ABC;
one = compress(one,"MN_Natural_san_CD");
run;

This is not working

1. got value like this (Its incorrect )

monthnum weekinmonth bctype cycle eventdaysnum eventflag SG BSG SUBB FO GOY KSG UBB B SUBGP USOY1

2. WARNING: Data too long for column "One"; truncated to 128 characters to fit.

Re: removing a character from variable value

Tom — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 18:28:37 GMT

COMPRESS() is for removing individual characters.

You can use TRANWRD()

data new;
  set ABC;
  one = tranwrd(one,"MN_Natural_san_CD",' ');
run;

or TRANSTRN() function instead. The second is useful when you want remove the substring instead of just replacing it with one or more spaces. Use the TRIMN() function to generate an empty string for the third argument.

data new;
  set ABC;
  one = transtrn(one,"MN_Natural_san_CD",trimn(' '));
run;

Re: removing a character from variable value

Tom — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 18:30:57 GMT

Note that it will be much easier to deal with that list of variable names if each one was in its own observation.

data names;
  set ABC ;
  length name $32;
  do index=1 to countw(one,' ');
     name=scan(one,index,' ');
     output;
  end;
run;

Re: removing a character from variable value

Aexor — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 18:36:29 GMT

Thanks for suggestion. missed to mention one point here.

I don't want to create a new table. I want to modify the same table.

So here I don't want to create new, I want to modify ABC so after removing the variable value I will get the required updated column in the same table.
Can you suggest something please.

Re: removing a character from variable value

Tom — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 18:44:55 GMT

Please explain the larger context of what you are doing. It really looks like you are dealing with a list of variable names. That will work much better if you keep each name in a separate observation. Then you can filter the list just using a WHERE statement.

You CAN replace a dataset (just use the same name on the DATA and SET statements), but it is generally not a good idea as then you have lost your original version. It is especially to be discouraged for novice programmers that might not understand all of the potential side effects when the code does not run as intended.

Re: removing a character from variable value

sbxkoenk — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 21:15:16 GMT

I only read half of it (the original question), but the below blog might be useful :

Deleting a substring from a SAS string
By Leonid Batkhan on SAS Users February 22, 2021
https://blogs.sas.com/content/sgf/2021/02/22/deleting-a-substring-from-a-sas-string/

Koen