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SASAna
Quartz | Level 8

Hi SAS Users,

 

I wanted some help with getting the count of pipes '|' of a macro variable.

 

 %LET DLM_COUNT = COUNTC(&PLATFORM,') +1;  

 

&PLATFORM has value like 'ABC|DEF|GHI|QWE'

 

So i am expecting to 4 in DLM_COUNT.

 

Thanks,

Ana

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
mkeintz
PROC Star

Countc is a regulare sas function, not a macro function.  So it has to be called via  %sysfunc;

 

Also, you seem to want to count WORDs, where | is the separator:

 

%let PLATFORM =ABC|DEF|GHI|QWE;

%LET DLM_COUNT = %sysfunc(COUNTW(&PLATFORM,|));

%put &=dlm_count;

--------------------------
The hash OUTPUT method will overwrite a SAS data set, but not append. That can be costly. Consider voting for Add a HASH object method which would append a hash object to an existing SAS data set

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--------------------------

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
mkeintz
PROC Star

Countc is a regulare sas function, not a macro function.  So it has to be called via  %sysfunc;

 

Also, you seem to want to count WORDs, where | is the separator:

 

%let PLATFORM =ABC|DEF|GHI|QWE;

%LET DLM_COUNT = %sysfunc(COUNTW(&PLATFORM,|));

%put &=dlm_count;

--------------------------
The hash OUTPUT method will overwrite a SAS data set, but not append. That can be costly. Consider voting for Add a HASH object method which would append a hash object to an existing SAS data set

Would enabling PROC SORT to simultaneously output multiple datasets be useful? Then vote for
Allow PROC SORT to output multiple datasets

--------------------------
SASAna
Quartz | Level 8
Thanks much for the quick reply. It worked very well.
Astounding
PROC Star

Modifying your attempt slightly:

 

 

%let dlm_count = %sysfunc(countc(&platform, |));

 

I can't test it right now, but it looks like it should work.

 

In retrospect, COUNTW counts the number of words using pipes as delimiters.  COUNTC counts number of pipes.  Either is possible, just pick the one that does what you need.

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