Keep only alphanumeric characters from character string

[Ela_84]

Hi there,

I have a simple query i want to execute and I'm finding it hard, as I'm new to this. 

I have a list off "Agreement" numbers but they have character and numeric values and I just want to extract the characters into a new column. 

Example of "Agreement" number:

BAU123455L - I only need BAU

below is the code I used but getting no results.

if substr(left(Agreement),3) = 'BRN'  

[RW9]

Something like:

want=compress(agreement,"","ka");

You can find details of the options k and a in the documentation:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/64316/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a000212246.htm

[Ela_84]

Hi RW9,

Thank you for your quick response - it works but I only want the first 3 characters - this is bring the letter at the end as well and I just need the first 3 characters?

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

For future note, good idea to post test data (form of a datastep) and required output, so we can see input and output.  Something like:

want=substr(compress(agreement,"","ka"),1,3);

Should work. 

[Ela_84]

Thank you so much RW9.

This has helped, in future I will share more info. this was my first time I submitted a question and you guys are very helpful.

Thank you again.

[TomKari]

Glad you got a good answer! Another suggestion...in the future, give your post a meaningful title, something like what RW9 edited it to. It makes it easer to decide whether to take a look at it or not.

Tom

[smicha]

Just define a new variable with the function you are using. Check the example below.

data test;
	agreement = '  BAU123455L';
	newcol = substr(left(agreement),1,3);
run;