Add character string to every value of some variable

[NKormanik]

I'll start searching for the answer, but thought I'd put the question here first:

How would one add a character string to every value of some variable?

i.e., Variable is Item...

apple

banana

grape

becomes:

apple_fruit

banana_fruit

grape_fruit

Solution greatly appreciated!

[tarheel13]

just put newvar=item||'_fruit' in a data step.

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

Or

newvar = cats(item,'_fruit');

or

newvar = strip(item)||'_fruit';

The || operator may leave some spaces you don't want in the result.

You likely need to create a new variable as the length of the variable item is already set and adding additional characters may exceed that length, or play some games with a Length statement if you want to use the same variable name.

This would look like (assumes making the variable length 25 will hold existing text plus the text you intend to add)

data want; 
   length item $ 25;
   set have;
   item= cats(item,'_fruit');
run;

The above would have a possibly unwanted behavior; item becomes the first column in the data set which some people have issues with column order;