removing space

[Ishaan]

I am bringing the data from oracle. one of the character variable has value like

abc 25

spc 26

xy 20

I have used strip unction to remove the space. But when I compare the data with source value doesn't match. Also tried TRIMN(LEFT()). One more thing I don't want to delete the space between the values.

[TomKari]

You are using the strip function correctly. I wonder if you've got an encoding issue between Oracle and SAS.

To show you that the strip function is working, here's a code sample you can play with.

Tom

data have;
   length cvar $ 30;
   cvar = 'abc 25'; output;
   cvar = ' abc 25'; output;
   cvar = 'abc 25 '; output;
   cvar = ' abc 25 '; output;
run;

data want;
   set have;
   cvar2 = strip(cvar);
run;

proc tabulate data=want;
   class cvar2;

   table cvar2, n;
run;

[Steelers_In_DC]

Do you mean that you are pulling data into sas from oracle, then loading back to oracle and comparing your new file to the original?

If so I don't think that the new dataset is the problem, it looks like you are using the strip() function correctly.  It could be the original data or an issue during the transfer.

[Steelers_In_DC]

This seems like a lot for your purpose but I'm sure it'll work.  If it's a large dataset I'd put in a where clause too.  Scan() will separate by the blank you want to keep and catx() will strip each variable but use the space as a deliminator.

Hope it helps:

data have;

infile cards dsd;

input char $;

cards;

abc 25

spc 26

xy 20

;

run;

data want;

set have;

cchar = scan(char,1,'');

nchar = scan(char,2,'');

if _N_ => 1 then do;

new_var = catx(' ',cchar,nchar);

end;

run;