What is var1 =COMPRESS(var1, ''); doing?

[80sMetalForever]

In reviewing inherited code I come across:

var1 =COMPRESS(var1, '');

I've looked at the Compress documentation and several examples, but not sure what the two single quotes with nothing in them does?

thx

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

As a minimum it would remove blanks from the variable which would likely only be easily noticeable if they were leading or imbedded in the variable.

Examine what happens here:

data junk;

     var1 = ' some name ';

     var1 = compress(var1,'');

     put var1;

run;

[80sMetalForever]

perfect - that's what I thought but wanted to ensure it wasn't doing ADDITIONAL formatting...gonna remove the quotes so they don't confuse the next bloke