BookmarkSubscribeRSS Feed
dayuan
Obsidian | Level 7

Hi,

 

I am processing people names, and I find sometimes the names are in native language. For example, names are spelled like "André " or "Martínez". Currently I am manually tranforming such names into English one by one (e.g. "Andre" or "Martinez"), but there are so many names that I feel a little overwhelmed. I would really appreciate it if someone could kindly teach me a quicker way. Thank you very much in advance.

5 REPLIES 5
SASKiwi
PROC Star

If your problem is caused by different language encodings then this paper may help, in particular the conversion macro included:

 

http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/Multilingual_Computing_with_SAS_94.pdf 

RW9
Diamond | Level 26 RW9
Diamond | Level 26

Well, its a tricky one, as names could be anything.  My suggestion would be to create a coded list.  To do this, do a select distinct values of name from your dataset.  Then go through the distinct list and add in the decoded value, e.g.:

CODE         DECODE

André          Andre

...

Then simply use that coded list to replce the original.  I would imagine that you will need to do at least some manual review, I mean you could setup some programmatic conversions, but some will just be really random.

 

BrunoMueller
SAS Super FREQ

Have a look at the BASECHAR function, it might just do what you want.

 

Bruno

dayuan
Obsidian | Level 7

Hi Bruno,

 

Thank you very much for the useful tip. In order to use the function of BASEDCHAR, should I install "National Language Support (NLS)" as an addition? Since currently the log suggests that "The function BASECHAR is unknown, or cannot be accessed"...

 

PGStats
Opal | Level 21

Yes, you should install NLS.

PG

sas-innovate-2024.png

Join us for SAS Innovate April 16-19 at the Aria in Las Vegas. Bring the team and save big with our group pricing for a limited time only.

Pre-conference courses and tutorials are filling up fast and are always a sellout. Register today to reserve your seat.

 

Register now!

How to Concatenate Values

Learn how use the CAT functions in SAS to join values from multiple variables into a single value.

Find more tutorials on the SAS Users YouTube channel.

Click image to register for webinarClick image to register for webinar

Classroom Training Available!

Select SAS Training centers are offering in-person courses. View upcoming courses for:

View all other training opportunities.

Discussion stats
  • 5 replies
  • 833 views
  • 6 likes
  • 5 in conversation