Splitting up a variable

[marleeakerson]

Hello, 

I currently have a variable that contains a last name and first name, and I want to split it up into two separate variables, one for the last name and one for the first name. 

For example, I want the data to go from: 

Name

Smith Julia

Johnson Mark 

Reynolds Steve

to this: 

Last Name      First Name 

Smith                  Julia 

Johnson              Mark 

Reynolds             Steve 

Does anyone have any advice? 

Thanks!

[Reeza]

What would you do for a name like "Eddie Van Halen"?

Otherwise, in a simplistic situation illustrated, SCAN() works.

data want;
set have;

firstName = scan(name, 2);
lastName = scan(name, 1);

run;

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@marleeakerson wrote:

Hello, 

I currently have a variable that contains a last name and first name, and I want to split it up into two separate variables, one for the last name and one for the first name. 

For example, I want the data to go from: 

Name

Smith Julia

Johnson Mark 

Reynolds Steve

to this: 

Last Name      First Name 

Smith                  Julia 

Johnson              Mark 

Reynolds             Steve 

Does anyone have any advice? 

Thanks!

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