How do I remove excessive delimiters?

[MattSan]

Hello all,

Please can you assist with the following problem? I am trying to clean a large semi-structured dataset and I am on the cusp of solving this problem. Below is an example of the data that I need to clean by removing excessive delimiters (in this case commas) whilst maintaining at least one delimiter between variables.

Dataline: 123456,,,,,,,,,,,,Test,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Delivery Assistant,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,01/0512016,,,,,,,,,,,,,2016-o5·01,,,,,,,,,,,,,Public Holiday,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,6.00,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,8:00,,,,,,,38.32,,,,,,,,,,,306.56,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Required output: 123456,Test,Delivery Assistant,01/0512016,2016-o5·01,Public Holiday,6.00,8:00,38.32,306.56

I have tried using substr, trim, compress however I have not been able to achieve the required output.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[Kurt_Bremser]

If you do not specify the dsd option in the infile statement, consecutive delimiters are automatically treated as one.

Take care that no missing values can appear in the input data.

data test;
infile cards dlm=',';
input number text $ position:$20. serial:$10. chardate:$10. Daytext:$20. amount1 time:time8. amount2 amount3;
format time time8.;
cards;
123456,,,,,,,,,,,,Test,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Delivery Assistant,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,01/0512016,,,,,,,,,,,,,2016-o5·01,,,,,,,,,,,,,Public Holiday,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,6.00,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,8:00,,,,,,,38.32,,,,,,,,,,,306.56,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
;
run;

[Jagadishkatam · Accepted solution]

Try the perl regular expressions to substitute the multiple delimiters to single delimiter

data want;
set have;
new=prxchange('s/\,+/,/',-1,datal) ;
run;