Find alphanumeric string within a string

[jerry898969]

Hello,

I'm having a hard time getting the position of an alphanumeric string within another string.

Example.

a='abcdefgh1zzbxasefe' ;

b='1zz' ;

How can I find the position of b within a?  When there are spaces it works but I can't find the correct function to get me this information like this.  I've tried find, findw.

Any help would be appreciated.

[jerry898969]

I think I figured it out.  All the time I spent searching and testing and not until I post my question do I get it working.

I used this approach

data z;

  x = prxmatch('m/1zz|2ex/oi', 'abcdefgh1zzbxasefe') ; 

run ;

I get x=9 back.

[art297 · Accepted solution]

The index function would work too.  e.g.:

data test;

  a='abcdefgh1zzbxasefe' ;

  b='1zz' ;

  c='gh1';

  d='xxx';

  testb=index(a,b);

  testc=index(a,c);

  testd=index(a,d);

run;

[jerry898969]

Hi Arthur,

That worked very good for what I was trying to do.

Thank you so much