condensing a string

[Cooksam13]

I originally had my data look like this 

if index(upcase(tests), 'HEP') then Hepcheck = 1;
else if index(upcase(tests), 'HBSAG') then HEpCheck = 1;
else if index(upcase(remarks), 'HEP') then Hepcheck = 1;
else if index(upcase(remarks), 'HBSAG') then HepCheck = 1;
else Hepcheck = 0;

I tried to condense the code:

data program.ds2054;
set sheet.ds2054;
if index(upcase(tests), 'HEP C' or 'HEPATITIS C') then hepcheck = 0;
else if index(upcase(tests), 'HEP' or 'HBSAG' or 'HBV') then Hepcheck = 1 ;
Else if index(upcase(remarks), 'HEP C' or 'HEPATITIS C') then hepcheck =0;
Else if index(upcase(remarks), 'HEP' or 'HBSAG' or 'HBV') then hepcheck =1;

else Hepcheck = 0;

 However I get this error now and no data shows up even though i had a lot of data the other way

NOTE: Character values have been converted to numeric values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).

71:38 71:49 72:43 72:52 72:63 73:32 73:43 74:32 74:41 74:52 75:44 75:55 76:44 76:53 76:64

80:39 80:53 81:32 81:46 82:42 82:56

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).

71:46 72:60 73:40 74:49 75:23 75:52 76:23 76:61 80:50 81:43 82:22 82:53

NOTE: Variable OtherClassBDetails is uninitialized.

NOTE: Invalid numeric data, 'HEP C' , at line 71 column 38.

NOTE: Invalid numeric data, 'HEPATITIS C' , at line 71 column 49.

NOTE: Invalid numeric data, 'HEP' , at line 72 column 43.

[Tom]

The result of the boolean expression OR is a numeric value, not a character string. False results are coded as 0 and true as 1.

So while this tests if HEP C is in the TESTs

if index(upcase(tests), 'HEP C' ) then hepcheck = 0;

This

if index(upcase(tests), 'HEP C' or 'HEPATITIS C') then hepcheck = 0;

is testing if 0 with 11 leading spaces is in tests.

Just test each word independently.

data program.ds2054;
set sheet.ds2054;
if index(upcase(tests), 'HEP C' ) then hepcheck = 0;
else if index(upcase(tests), 'HEPATITIS C') then hepcheck = 0;
etc.

[Cooksam13]

thank you for your help! so is there a way to condense this string at all? or should I just leave it as is?

[Tom]

Depends on what you are actually doing.

Are you trying to test the whole values of the variable TESTS?  If so then you could use the IN operation instead of the INDEX() function.  Then you could list multiple values to test for in a single expression.

if upcase(tests) in ('HEP C' 'HEPATITIS C') then ...