topic Re: Using IF Then with wildcards in SAS Programming

Using IF Then with wildcards

Anthony_eng — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:22:26 GMT

One of my variables is made up of long strings. Similar to the following:

CODE

01|02|03|04|07|0A|0B|0C

01|02|03|04|05|0A|0B

I have tried using % wildcard operator, which works in SQL, but I couldn't get it to work in SAS. I also tried using * which I had seen used in another similar question. I would like to use an IF THEN statement to do the following:

IF CODE CONTAINS '03' THEN DO;

Unfortunately only arithmetic operators can be used with IF THEN statements. I considered using the SUBSTR function, but I don't know the starting position of the codes, they can change for each observation. Any advice or ideas on how I can solve this issue?

Re: Using IF Then with wildcards

PaigeMiller — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:21:51 GMT

if find(code,'03') then do;

Re: Using IF Then with wildcards

AMSAS — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:35:02 GMT

The wildcards only work with WHERE statements

Take a look at PRXMATCH Function, and the examples

Re: Using IF Then with wildcards

Reeza — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:36:09 GMT

@Anthony_eng wrote:

One of my variables is made up of long strings. Similar to the following:

CODE

01|02|03|04|07|0A|0B|0C

01|02|03|04|05|0A|0B

I have tried using % wildcard operator, which works in SQL, but I couldn't get it to work in SAS. I also tried using * which I had seen used in another similar question. I would like to use an IF THEN statement to do the following:

IF CODE CONTAINS '03' THEN DO;

Unfortunately only arithmetic operators can be used with IF THEN statements. I considered using the SUBSTR function, but I don't know the starting position of the codes, they can change for each observation. Any advice or ideas on how I can solve this issue?

INDEXW/FINDW are functions you'll want.

FIND will find 01 within 001.

I think the statement in purple contradicts itself, not sure why you think "only arithmetic operators can be used with IF THEN statements".