How to identify repeating characters in the string.

[PGStats]

Thank you Matt!

[pr1]

This code is giving me false positive. 

I have character data that has ID Numbers.  It is 9 character long string and has numbers as char data from 0 to 9.  I am trying to identify if 5 or more consecutive characters are the same.  If yes, then I will create a flag. 

I have this code below.  It works most of the time but also gives me false positive.  For example, it will pick up something like 121341111 – where the ‘1’ is within the string 5 or more times.

I want to identify only if a character is present consecutively 5 or more times.  121341111 should not be flagged 1 repeated consecutively only 4 times. 

Any idea?

data want(drop = i) ;

  set have ;

  length ssn_char ssn_rept_chars $9;

  ssn_char = ssn;

  do i=1 to 6 until (flag=1);

  if substr(ssn_char, i, 1) = substr(ssn_char, i+1, 1) = substr(ssn_char, i+2, 1) = substr(ssn_char, i+3, 1) 

      then flag=1;

if flag = 1 then ssn_rept_chars = ssn_char;

  end;

run;