On a side note, SAS does permit IF/THEN/IF. However, nobody uses it because it doesn't save you anything. (All it really does is make the ELSE statement more difficult to interpret.) For example, here's a test program:
data _null_;
do i=1 to 100000000;
if i > 0 and 5=4 then x=2;
end;
run;
data _null_;
do i=1 to 100000000;
if 5=4 and i > 0 then x=2;
end;
run;
data _null_;
do i=1 to 100000000;
if i > 0 then if 5=4 then x=2;
end;
run;
The middle step runs faster because 5=4 is always false. The software is smart enough to figure out that it doesn't need to check the second condition when the first condition is false.
When it comes to your application, why do you need to check all these combinations? If you find "Comprehensive Assessment" isn't that enough so that you don't need to check for variations that would follow? Are there any strings that contain "Comprehensive Assessment" that also contain other characters where it would be incorrect to set CA_ONLY to 1? I realize there are other strings that need to be checked (upper vs. lower case, "ax" vs. "Assessment"), but why do they all need to be checked?
Finally, strings that become lengthy should not generate an error. They should at most generate a warning because the software suspects you have done something wrong. If you know you haven't done anything wrong, you can usually ignore this particular warning. (Very bad advice in general, but applicable in this case.)
