topic Re: Please Help: deleting the first letter of a variable in SAS Programming

Deleting the first letter of a variable

sasworker16 — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 14:37:05 GMT

Hello,

I would like to delete the first variable of the values of the variable CONTEST:

(Package_ID= identification number for each package / CONT_CD=unique code for the contents in the package)

--------------------------------------

Package_ID CONT_CD

1001 XA123

1002 XA225

1003 YA336

---------------------------------------

I would like to simply get ride of the first letter of the Variable CONT_CD so it looks like the following:

--------------------------------------

Package_ID CONT_CD

1001 A123

1002 A225

1003 A336

---------------------------------------

I have tried the following,,

data w.package_want set w.package;

CONT_CD = SUBSTR(2,5) in CONT_CD;

RUN;

but I am getting an error.

Any advice or help would be really helpful.

Thank you.

Re: Please Help: deleting the first letter of a variable

stat_sas — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 12:15:28 GMT

Hi,

Please try this.

data want;
set have;
substr(strip(CONT_CD),1,1)='';
run;

Re: Please Help: deleting the first letter of a variable

jklaverstijn — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 12:24:23 GMT

Hi,

There are a few issues with your code.

CONT_CD = SUBSTR(2,5) in CONT_CD;

is not correct syntax. Is this valid in some other language (just curious)? Better would be:

CONT_CD = SUBSTR(CONT_CD,2,5);

But in case the variable CONT_CD is only 5 positions long, this could give messages about an invalid third argument because you reach beyond the end of the string. A safe approach is simply ommiting the third argument, as that indicates "to the end".

CONT_CD = SUBSTR(CONT_CD,2);

Hope this helps,

- Jan.

Re: Please Help: deleting the first letter of a variable

sasworker16 — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 01:50:10 GMT

Thank you very much for your help!