topic Re: Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros in SAS Programming

Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros

chennupriya — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:05:59 GMT

Hi ,

I have a variable called xy = 000499 19

and i want to create var1 = 000499 and var2 = 19

can anyone pls let me know how to achieve

Re: Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros

Loko — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:09:44 GMT

Hello,

data want;
xy='000499 19';
var1=scan(xy,1);
var2=scan(xy,2);
run;

Re: Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros

chennupriya — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:14:20 GMT

hi ,

we have to extract first 6 characters for var1 and next 2 characters for var2

i have used

LEFT(xx,6) as Var1,

RIGHT(LEFT(xx,9),2) as Var2,

but it didnt work i dont know y ?

Re: Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros

Loko — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:15:51 GMT

data want;
xy='000499 19';
var1=substr(xy,1,6);
var2=substr(xy,8,2);
run;

Re: Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros

chennupriya — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:18:18 GMT

Hi ,

I got it but how is that similar to the left and right function which i have sent you can u pls explain because i have many similar cases where i have to use it

Re: Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros

Loko — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:21:54 GMT

Hello,

Left and Right are used in SAS just to align a character string. Probably you took them from excel where indeed they are used to extract from a string.

Re: Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros

Astounding — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:23:05 GMT

The issue you are having is that you never read the SAS documentation for the LEFT and RIGHT functions. In some other languages, you may be permitted two arguments to these functions. But in SAS, only one argument is permitted. You'll need to read the SAS documentation.

Re: Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros

chennupriya — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:28:48 GMT

Hi ,

Thank you . But can i make left and right function work in SAS to achieve what i need because i have 10 codes to change and also its not same case with everything for example when we have a condition like

xx= NA630011 what is a similar function achieved by below code

LEFT(xx) as Var1,

RIGHT(LEFT(xx),1) as Var2,

RIGHT(LEFT(xx),3) as Var3,

RIGHT(LEFT(xx),3) as Var4,

Thanks

Re: Left and right characters of a value with leading zeros

ballardw — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 17:47:05 GMT

@chennupriya wrote:

xx= NA630011 what is a similar function achieved by below code

LEFT(xx) as Var1,

RIGHT(LEFT(xx),1) as Var2,

RIGHT(LEFT(xx),3) as Var3,

RIGHT(LEFT(xx),3) as Var4,

What would you expect the values of Var1, Var2, Var3 and Var4 to be? I'm not going to guess where you got the example syntax from.

Note: if any of these are single values of 0 or 1 you better point out which 0 and which 1 from the original string contributed it as there would be different ways to get those.