topic Re: How to extract string from a character variable? in SAS Programming

How to extract string from a character variable?

caveman529 — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 05:21:14 GMT

Hi, everyone:

Just wondering how to extract the red portion of the following strings?

client/data/20/0000893220-98-000530.txt

client/data/810084/0001193125-08-059176.txt

client/data/914208/0000950129-07-000703.txt

client/data/1036213/0001036213-98-000015.txt

client/data/1103345/0001103345-05-000031.txt

client/data/1161175/0000950123-10-012321.txt

The red string always fall between the third slash and the .txt portion.

I understand I need to use anypunct and anynum to solve this problem. However, after several try, I still get 0. Thank you!

Re: How to extract string from a character variable?

Ksharp — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 06:05:03 GMT

data _null_;
input x $100.;
y=scan(x,-2,'./');
put x= y=;
cards;
client/data/20/0000893220-98-000530.txt
client/data/810084/0001193125-08-059176.txt
client/data/914208/0000950129-07-000703.txt
client/data/1036213/0001036213-98-000015.txt
client/data/1103345/0001103345-05-000031.txt
client/data/1161175/0000950123-10-012321.txt
;
run;

Ksharp

Re: How to extract string from a character variable?

sunilzood — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 06:48:27 GMT

Ksharp solution is Perfect , But when I tried it skipped alternate rows. A little modification just by adding " : " will work perfect. Please try:

data _null_;

input x : $ 100.;

y=scan(x,4,'./');

put x= y=;

cards;

client/data/20/0000893220-98-000530.txt

client/data/810084/0001193125-08-059176.txt

client/data/914208/0000950129-07-000703.txt

client/data/1036213/0001036213-98-000015.txt

client/data/1103345/0001103345-05-000031.txt

client/data/1161175/0000950123-10-012321.txt

;

run;

Re: How to extract string from a character variable?

caveman529 — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 07:23:54 GMT

Thank you, Ksharp and sunilzood! It works like charm on my data. Could you explain a little bit of the more about the

y=scan(x,4,'./');

Especially, the 4 and ./ part, since there are multiple slashes... Thank you!

Re: How to extract string from a character variable?

Ksharp — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 07:31:52 GMT

4 means the fourth part.

./ means take both . and / as separator .

Re: How to extract string from a character variable?

caveman529 — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 00:36:24 GMT

Wow, this is concise!