topic Re: Compress Function using a decimal with range in SAS Programming

Compress Function using a decimal with range

JohnChen_TW — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 10:04:04 GMT

Hi all,

I'm trying to compress a data like "<= 0.3" to "0.3", but COMPRESS FUNCTION seems that just can compress ALL punctuation marks at one time...So, is there any better way to compress only "<= " and keep the decimal?

However, this is just one example of my data. I need a resolution for all cases like this. Thank you!

Original Compressed

<= 0.3 0.3

0.58 0.58

> 1.2 1.2

45 45

Re: Compress Function using a decimal with range

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 10:13:31 GMT

data test;
original = "<= 0.3";
compressed = compress(original,'<=');
run;

proc print data=test;
run;

works.

Output:

Obs    original    compressed

 1      <= 0.3        0.3

Re: Compress Function using a decimal with range

Kalind_Patel — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 10:24:08 GMT

Hi @JohnChen_TW;

You can use this line :

compressed = compress(original,'<=');

this will remove <= combination from the variaable;

But, on the third line you provided another special character in sample data,

so below code will not compress this special character;

so in this case you can use this code:

data test;
set test;
compressed=compress(original,'<');
compressed=compress(original,'=');
compressed=compress(original,'>');
run;

it will remove all the possible combination like: <=, <, =, >, => from the variable

Re: Compress Function using a decimal with range

RW9 — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 10:39:34 GMT

Well, its likely that you have other maths symbols, so maybe reverse the thinking, the below "k"eeps, only "d"igits and the decimal:

data test;
  original = "<= 0.3";
  compressed = compress(original,'.','kd');
run;

Re: Compress Function using a decimal with range

JohnChen_TW — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 02:26:20 GMT

Well, this will resolve only the first line of data. Thank you.

Re: Compress Function using a decimal with range

JohnChen_TW — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 02:30:21 GMT

Kalind_Patel, thanks for your suggestion.
Well, maybe my question is unclear. The point is that I need to keep only "0.1", "1.5", ...and so on.
Thank you.

Re: Compress Function using a decimal with range

JohnChen_TW — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 02:37:02 GMT

Hi RW9,

Thanks for your answer! It resolved my question. 🙂