topic sorting value within a variable in SAS Programming

sorting value within a variable

1239 — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 11:07:15 GMT

Hi,

I am using EG running SAS 9.4 version and need to know is they any SAS function to sort a value within variable or any other way to achieve the desired output shown below. Thanks for your help.

Input raw value - X = D; K; B; S; O

Desired output value - X = B; D; K; O; S

Re: sorting value within a variable

PeterClemmensen — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 11:23:34 GMT

Is the value a character string? Like "- X = D; K; B; S; O" ?

Re: sorting value within a variable

PaigeMiller — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 12:06:50 GMT

data have;
    x='D; K; B; S; O;';
run;
data want;
    set have;
    array z{1:100} $ _temporary_;
    do i=1 to countw(x,' ');
        z(i)=scan(x,i,' ');
    end;
    call sortc(of z(*));
    x=catx(' ',of z(*));
    drop i;
run;

Re: sorting value within a variable

andreas_lds — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 11:42:44 GMT

Afaik there is no function that can do this.

Maybe the way the data is read can be changed:

data have;
   length Key Value1-Value26 $ 1;
   infile datalines4 delimiter="=;" truncover;
   input Key Value1-Value26;
   
   array values Value1-Value26;
   
   call sortc(of values[*]);
   
   want = catx(' = ', Key, catx(';', of values[*]));
   
   /*drop Key Value:;*/
   
   datalines4;
X = D; K; B; S; O
;;;;

Re: sorting value within a variable

FreelanceReinh — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 16:56:19 GMT

Hi @1239,

If the "raw values" in your real data are very similar to your example, i.e., the items to be sorted are single characters without duplicates (or you want to remove duplicates, if any), you could combine a few functions to get the desired result.

Example for single letters (all uppercase as in your example or all lowercase) in an ASCII environment:

x=prxchange('s/(\w)/$1; /',-1,compress(collate(65),x,'k'));

Re: sorting value within a variable

1239 — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 07:12:22 GMT

Hi andreas,

Thanks for this code and it worked.