topic Re: Extract first letters from each variable left to right and right to left in SAS Programming

Extract first letters from each variable left to right and right to left

pavank — Thu, 02 May 2024 11:29:16 GMT

data have;
    input Name $ Gender $ City $12.;
    datalines;
Srilakshmi Female Hyderabad
Vamika Female Bangalore
Prajwal Male Mumbai
;
run;

data want;
    set have;
    City = substr(City, 1, 1);
    Gender = substr(Gender, 1, 1);
    Name = substr(scan(Name, 1), 1, 1);
    drop Name Gender City;
    left_to_right=catx(' ',name,gender,city);
    right_to_left=catx(' ',city,gender,name);
run;

Hi Guys ,

Here i want to extract first letter from each variable left to right and right to left

is it correct way or any other method to achieve could you please give solution

Re: Extract first letters from each variable left to right and right to left

PaigeMiller — Thu, 02 May 2024 11:42:50 GMT

@pavank wrote:

Here i want to extract first letter from each variable left to right and right to left

is it correct way or any other method to achieve could you please give solution

You don't have to ask us "is it correct". You run the code and see if it is correct.

This is a relatively short piece of code and if it does what you want, then I wouldn't bother searching for another solution (unless your question is purely to learn alternatives)

Re: Extract first letters from each variable left to right and right to left

Astounding — Thu, 02 May 2024 11:52:10 GMT

It looks like your program drops the original variabes. Nothing wrong with that, but if you don't need them this simplification comes to mind:

data want;
   length city gender name $ 1;
    set have;
    drop Name Gender City;
    left_to_right=catx(' ',name,gender,city);
    right_to_left=catx(' ',city,gender,name);
run;

Just shorten the variables, and forget about SUBSTR.

Re: Extract first letters from each variable left to right and right to left

data_null__ — Thu, 02 May 2024 13:26:51 GMT

Check or the FIRST function.

https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/lefunctionsref/p1af3wnk52qg49n1xcdk1wpcmucy.htm

Re: Extract first letters from each variable left to right and right to left

Patrick — Fri, 03 May 2024 02:27:44 GMT

@pavank Nothing wrong with your code but there are of course almost always a multitude of coding options. Here one more:

data want;
    set have;
    length left_to_right right_to_left $5;
    keep left_to_right right_to_left;
    left_to_right=catx(' ',first(name),first(gender),first(city));
    right_to_left=reverse(left_to_right);;
run;