topic Character function - names in SAS Procedures https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/Character-function-names/m-p/177372#M45404 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>Hello,</P><P></P><P>I have a variable - full names, and I want to separate all names (last, middle, first). </P><P>The variable is usually like Dan I Cooper. However some persons' names include a nick name and their names are like Johnson (John) E Allen. So I want to have a function to tell me which full names include a nickname within (). My solution is to use : If ANYPUNCT(fullname)&gt;0 then nick_name=scan(fullname,2).</P><P>But now I find out a new issue, some full names are like Jeff M O'Hagan. With an apostrophe, the anypunct(fullname) is also greater than 0.</P><P>So is there a function I can just search parentheses within a string?</P><P></P><P>Thank you!</P><P></P><P>P.S. of course these names are not real names.</P><P>Cliff</P></BODY></HTML> Sat, 10 Jan 2015 18:04:59 GMT cliff 2015-01-10T18:04:59Z Character function - names https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/Character-function-names/m-p/177372#M45404 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>Hello,</P><P></P><P>I have a variable - full names, and I want to separate all names (last, middle, first). </P><P>The variable is usually like Dan I Cooper. However some persons' names include a nick name and their names are like Johnson (John) E Allen. So I want to have a function to tell me which full names include a nickname within (). My solution is to use : If ANYPUNCT(fullname)&gt;0 then nick_name=scan(fullname,2).</P><P>But now I find out a new issue, some full names are like Jeff M O'Hagan. With an apostrophe, the anypunct(fullname) is also greater than 0.</P><P>So is there a function I can just search parentheses within a string?</P><P></P><P>Thank you!</P><P></P><P>P.S. of course these names are not real names.</P><P>Cliff</P></BODY></HTML> Sat, 10 Jan 2015 18:04:59 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/Character-function-names/m-p/177372#M45404 cliff 2015-01-10T18:04:59Z Re: Character function - names https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/Character-function-names/m-p/177373#M45405 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>FIND and INDEX functions.</P></BODY></HTML> Sat, 10 Jan 2015 18:09:09 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/Character-function-names/m-p/177373#M45405 Reeza 2015-01-10T18:09:09Z Re: Character function - names https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/Character-function-names/m-p/177374#M45406 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>Thanks! I just find(fullname,'(') and filter out those nicknames.</P></BODY></HTML> Sat, 10 Jan 2015 18:32:13 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/Character-function-names/m-p/177374#M45406 cliff 2015-01-10T18:32:13Z