topic Re: NLITERAL Parsed Label in SAS Programming

NLITERAL Parsed Label

SAS_Muggle — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 21:55:18 GMT

I want to use the nliteral function to rename a variable into the label, however, I need to parse the label. Is it possible to combine the nliteral with the scan function, or if not is there a workaround?

Re: NLITERAL Parsed Label

Tom — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 22:04:24 GMT

@SAS_Muggle wrote:

I want to use the nliteral function to rename a variable into the label, however, I need to parse the label. Is it possible to combine the nliteral with the scan function, or if not is there a workaround?

I cannot figure out what you mean. You only need to apply the NLITERAL() function to the value once you have decided what you want it to be. Finish all of your "parsing" before you get to the step of generating the new name.

data want;
  set have;
  length new_name $64 ;
  * generate new_name from LABEL ;
  new_name=substr(coalesce(label,name),1,32);
  * Now make it an name literal ;
  new_name = nliteral(new_name);
run;

Re: NLITERAL Parsed Label

ballardw — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 23:14:32 GMT

Please provide an actual example and the desired result.

I am afraid that "rename a variable" in this context is very likely going to be difficult if your label has any length at all. Even with the generally ugly and awkward to use name literals you are still limited to 32 characters for the variable name.