topic Re: Capturing multiple patterns using like Operator in proc SQL in SAS Procedures

Capturing multiple patterns using like Operator in proc SQL

anoopm7 — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 22:04:06 GMT

Hello,

I am trying to capture all the names that follow a pattern using the LIKE operator in proc sql. I don't want to use a OR command or a UNION in my sql. Is there a better way of doing it like using a IN associated with LIKE.

data test ;

input id name $ ;

datalines ;

12 ANOOP

13 ANEESH

14 REMYA

15 REMY

16 JACK

17 JACOB

19 AMY

20 ROSE

;

run ;

proc sql;

select *

from test

where name like in('%AN%','%RE%') ;

when i execute this I get the below error

ERROR: LIKE operator requires character operands.

so I removed IN and ran it and I got the below errors

43 where name like ('%AN%','%RE%') ;

ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &, ), *, **, +, -, /, <, <=, <>, =, >, >=, ?, AND, BETWEEN,

CONTAINS, EQ, EQT, GE, GET, GT, GTT, IN, IS, LE, LET, LIKE, LT, LTT, NE, NET, NOT, NOTIN, OR, ^, ^=, |, ||, ~, ~=.

ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.

Thanks,

Re: Capturing multiple patterns using like Operator in proc SQL

PGStats — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 22:41:36 GMT

I don't know if there would be any benefit to using :

where prxmatch ("/AN|RE/oi", name) > 0;

Re: Capturing multiple patterns using like Operator in proc SQL

FriedEgg — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 23:19:41 GMT

Are you sure that you want the LIKE condition with the preceding %. Meaning that you are looking to select rows where the name contains the string AN or RE anywhere in the name, rather than just as a prefix, as your data suggests?

Re: Capturing multiple patterns using like Operator in proc SQL

Astounding — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 23:51:01 GMT

If (1) you really are looking for only the prefix AN or RE, and (2) you are willing to switch from SQL to a DATA step, it becomes easy:

where name in : ('AN', 'RE');

Re: Capturing multiple patterns using like Operator in proc SQL

Patrick — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 00:13:19 GMT

If you want to search a string for more than one substring anywhere in the string (as your LIKE indicates) then I would go for a regular expression as already proposed.

If you run this SQL against a data base then I would use explicit SQL and use the data base function for regular expressions (a lot of data bases have such an implementation) to avoid downloading all the data first into SAS for sub-setting (prxmatch() can't be pushed to the data base for execution).

Re: Capturing multiple patterns using like Operator in proc SQL

PGStats — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 03:41:38 GMT

If you really are looking for only the prefix AN or RE and prefer to stay with SQL, use:

where substr(name, 1, 2) in ("AN", "RE");

Re: Capturing multiple patterns using like Operator in proc SQL

anoopm7 — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 14:24:22 GMT

Thanks. That almost gave me what I am looking for. But if they come between the sentence I may not be able to use the IN and SUBSTR. So in that case is the best approach to shift from proc sql using to the basic data step and using a Where condition?

Re: Capturing multiple patterns using like Operator in proc SQL

PGStats — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:41:11 GMT

@Astounding's proposition and mine above are both for the prefix only case. If the substring can occur anywhere in the sentence, go for the PRXMATCH solution proposed earlier. - PG