Hello all,
I have a SAS data set has a variable names 'string' its value looks like: "a1|a2|a3|a4", "a1|a2", "a1", "a1|a2|a3" (some obs has less '|' and some has more "|") ;
I want to create new variables x1=a1,x2=a2,x3=a3........ but it does not work,
please help.
Thanks!
Here is my code:
data have;
string= "a1|a2|a3|a4"; output;
string= "a1|a2"; output;
string= "a1|a2|a3"; output;
run;
data want;
length x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 $200 ;
set have;
do i=1 to countw(string,"|")
;
/*call symput('x'||left(_i_), scan(string,i,"|"));*/
x%trim(%left(i))=scan(string,i,"|");
end;
run;
You're picturing that macro language can work on DATA step variables, but that's not really the case. For example, try:
%let x = %left(i);
%put *&x*;
You'll see that %LEFT is left-hand justifying the character "i", and has nothing to do with the value of a DATA step variable.
Try setting up an array:
array x {5} $200;
Then inside the DO loop you can use:
x{i} = scan(string, i, "|");
Hello,
One solution:
data want;
length x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 $200 ;
set have;
array x{*} x1 x2 x3 x4 x5;
do i=1 to dim(x) while (missing(scan(string,i,"|"))=0);
x{i}=scan(string,i,"|");
end;
run;
You're in a data step, don't use macro functions.
Create an array to hold your new variables.
Use the scan function to populate the variables.
You already have some good answers, below example has been presented many time by @data_null__:
data want;
infile cards dsd truncover dlm='|';
if _n_=1 then
input @@;
set have;
_infile_=string;
length x1-x5 $200;
input @1 x1-x5 @@;
cards;
neccesary evil
;
run;
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