topic Easy One.... Where string starts with [A-Z]..... in SAS Programming

Easy One.... Where string starts with [A-Z].....

ChrisElias — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:56:45 GMT

Hi all.

Hopefully an easy one for you!

In T-SQL i used to write something along the lines of

Select *

from Table1

Where field1 like '[A-Z]%'

That would select all records from Table1 where field1 started with any character between A and Z. It would not bring back records starting with a number or a non alphanumeric.

If i did

...

Where field1 like '[A-Z][0-9]%' it would return al rows starting with one letter and then a number.. like "S2 Antfarm"

How can i do this in SAS?

Re: Easy One.... Where string starts with [A-Z].....

Jagadishkatam — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:09:32 GMT

Hi Chris,

We have function in sas such as anyalnum,anyalpha(),anydigit()

anyalnum(), in a string if there is any alpha numeric value it will give the position of that character in numbers, if none is found then it results in 0, similary

anyalpha(), in a string it searches for only character value

anydigit(), in a string it searches for only numeric value

Thanks,

Jagadish

Re: Easy One.... Where string starts with [A-Z].....

AncaTilea — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:30:40 GMT

Hi.

I believe PRXMATCH would allow you to "match" any alphanumeric

Something like this:

data want;

set have(where = ( (prxmatch("m/[a-z]|[0-9]/i",your_variable) > 0)) );

run;

For example,

using sashelp.class if you want to keep the records that contain the letter 'b' or any number in the name:

data want;

set sashelp.class(where = ( (prxmatch("m/|[0-9]/i",name) > 0) ));

run;

Good luck,

Anca.

Re: Easy One.... Where string starts with [A-Z].....

ChrisElias — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:01:38 GMT

Thanks once again Jagadish for a quick response.

Anca - you were right on the button with that one!! Excellent and thanks for you help - you're a genius!