Reading a Text file, multiple observations in one row of raw data

[RanaKhan]

Hi,

This is my first post to this forum. I am trying to read this text file.

It has four variables but last two variables may repeat several times in each row. Attached sample data will give you the details.

Any suggestion / tips would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Rana

[Reeza]

Would the original file be JSON, XML or something like that? I don't quite recognize the format (end of day), SAS has method to read those (and other) files though this could probably be parsed as well...

[Tom · Accepted solution]

So I would just treat the brackets and commas as delimiters the same as if there were spaces between the fields.

data want;

  length id $12 device_or_cookie_indicator 8

         property_id $20 unique_days 8

  ;

  infile 'data.txt' dlm=',{()}' truncover firstobs=2;

  input id device_or_cookie_indicator @;

  do item=1 by 1 until (property_id = ' ');

    input property_id unique_days @;

      if item=1 or property_id ne ' ' then output;

  end;

run;

[RanaKhan]

Thanks Tom, Great help.