topic Re: Character variable in SAS Programming

Character variable

vxhong17 — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:18:05 GMT

I want to convert a character variable (stub) to a new variable (stub1). Rules are that the first 5 or 6 characters before m or e are kept (e.g, B01001e1 -> keep B01001 and B01001Ee -> keep B01001E) and that numbers after m or e are added to three digits (e.g. 1 -> 001, 12 -> 012, 123 -> 123).

For example,

B01001e1 -> B01001001

B02001m12 = B02001012

B01001Ee1 -> B01001E001

B05003Fm123 -> B05003F123

How can I deal with this matter? Thank you so much

Re: Character variable

Reeza — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:37:16 GMT

You can look at some string functions such as compress using e/m as delimiters as well as translate to do the conversion for the other characters, or a format that does the conversion for the second part would also work.

Re: Character variable

Haikuo — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:51:34 GMT

This is to follow Fareeza's logic. I am sure there would be better code than the following:

data have;

input var $20.;

cards;

B01001e1

B02001m12

B01001Ee1

B05003Fm123

;

data want;

set have;

_l=length(scan(var,1,'me'));

newvar=cats(substr(var,1,_l+1),put(input(substr(var,_l+2),best.),z3.));

drop _l;

run;

Haikuo

Re: Character variable

data_null__ — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:06:43 GMT

same but different.

17         data _null_;
18            input var $20.; 
19            i = findc(var,'me');
20            substr(var,i)=put(input(substr(var,i+1),3.),z3.);
21            put (_all_)(=);
22            cards;

var=B01001001 i=7
var=B02001012 i=7
var=B01001E001 i=8
var=B05003F123 i=8

Re: Character variable

Haikuo — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:21:36 GMT

I knew it. . Here is another variation:

data want;

set have;

substr(var,length(scan(var,1,'me'))+1)=put(input(scan(var,2,'me'),best.),z3.);

run;

Haikuo

Re: Character variable

vxhong17 — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:23:00 GMT

Hi data_null_, Reeza,

Thank you so much for your help,

Hi Hai.kuo,

Thank you so much for your nice sample code.

Best Regards,