topic Re: Retrieve Value from a string in SAS Procedures

Retrieve Value from a string

jammy — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 14:18:08 GMT

Hi all,

I need help with the following:

I have a 2 variables in a dataset

n= number

label = string e.g. X!3.479!3.49902!3.43968!3.49919!3.5432!3.69513!3.52109!3.53714!

What I need to do is - retrieve the 'n' th value (seperated by "!").

For example:

n= 2

value= 3.49902

Im guessing I need to use a scan?

Many thanks

LinusH — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 14:31:06 GMT

Yes

Astounding — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 14:36:12 GMT

jammy,

Yes, you'll need SCAN. However, SCAN alone will create VALUE as a character variable:

value = scan(string, n, '!');

If you want VALUE as a numeric variable, you'll have to apply the INPUT function to the result returned by the SCAN function:

value = input( scan(string, n, '!'), 8.);

It won't hurt to use a length of 8 in the INPUT function when the incoming string contains fewer than 8 characters. Good luck.

jammy — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 14:37:36 GMT

My bad..... I was trying to make it more complicated than it is!

Cheers

Jagadishkatam — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 14:46:42 GMT

Also if you want to know the different nth values, try the below code

data have;

string="X!3.479!3.49902!3.43968!3.49919!3.5432!3.69513!3.52109!3.53714!";

do i = 1 to 10;

new=scan(string,i,'!');

output;

end;

run;

Thanks,

Jag