topic Need to get rid of () in a variable in SAS Programming

Need to get rid of () in a variable

fadtt — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:53:57 GMT

Hi everyone,

please I need assistance to resolve an issue. The issue is on how to use macro to remove parenthesis () from variable string. For example given the following variables:

(cup table plates iron street home) but I need the remove the () in order to work with the variables.

Thanks.

Need to get rid of () in a variable

art297 — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:00:30 GMT

You can get rid of them by using the compress function. e.g.:

data have;

informat stuff $80.;

input stuff &;

have=compress(stuff,"()");

cards;

(cup table plates iron street home)

;

Need to get rid of () in a variable

fadtt — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:03:31 GMT

Thanks art297 I know that is possible but I like to solve this using macro function.

Need to get rid of () in a variable

Reeza — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:49:27 GMT

To clarify are you looking to USE a macro function or to create a macro to do this.

If you want to create a macro what do you envision as the input and what as the output?

Some of the macro functions you'll can look into are:

%scan

%if %then %do

Or you could just wap the compress function in a macro .

You could always use a find or index function in a data _null_ step.

Basically there's many ways to do this and it sounds a lot like a home work question to me.

You should also move this thread to the macro language forum.