topic Re: prxmatch in SAS Procedures

prxmatch

sam369 — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:44:05 GMT

Hi All,

I have thousands of different string in variable "var". I want to pick only those records having (/ or missing)

data have;

input grp $40. var $20.;

cards;

AAAAA Par_diff

BBBB rag*diff

CCCC rAg/diff

DDDD

EEEEE run_diF

;

run;

want: records with var (/,missing)

output:

CCCC rag/diff

DDDD

i am using

prxmatch("m/ragdiff/io",compress(var,'/'))>0 & Missing(var)

Thanks

Sam

Re: prxmatch

FriedEgg — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:53:31 GMT

You main issue is having 'and' where it should be 'or.' I would not recommend using the regular expression, given your example (which I would also rewrite as prxmatch('#/|^\s+$#o', var) given your explained requirements).

where index(var, '/') or missing(var);

Re: prxmatch

sam369 — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 23:15:42 GMT

Thank you FriedEgg, i am under learning curve. i would like to achieve that using regular expression

Thanks

Sam

Re: prxmatch

FriedEgg — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 23:17:54 GMT

A good thing to learn would be that this is an inefficient use-case for regular expression.

Re: prxmatch

Haikuo — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 01:56:56 GMT

Well, this seems working for me , it came to me as a surprise:

data have;

input grp :$40. var :$20.;

cards;

AAAAA Par_diff

BBBB rag*diff

CCCC rAg/diff

DDDD .

EEEEE run_diF

;

run;

data want;

set have;

if prxmatch('/\/|^$/', strip(var))>0;

run;

Re: prxmatch

FriedEgg — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 05:20:07 GMT

You can accomplish the same thing without the strip by looking for a string containing only spaces.

where prxmatch('#/|^\s+$#o', var);

Re: prxmatch

sam369 — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 19:23:21 GMT

Thanks to both!!! Work like champ!!!!

COuld you please explain what special character matches (/) & space? From the variable var....In the above regular expression

Thanks

sam

Re: prxmatch

FriedEgg — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 21:51:54 GMT

\/|^\s+$

Match either the regular expression below (attempting the next alternative only if this one fails) «\/»

Match the character “/” literally «\/»

Or match regular expression number 2 below (the entire match attempt fails if this one fails to match) «^\s+$»

Assert position at the beginning of a line (at beginning of the string or after a line break character) «^»

Match a single character that is a “whitespace character” (spaces, tabs, and line breaks) «\s+»

Between one and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy) «+»

Assert position at the end of a line (at the end of the string or before a line break character) «$»