Compress Function using a decimal with range

[JohnChen_TW]

Hi all,

I'm trying to compress a data like "<= 0.3" to "0.3", but COMPRESS FUNCTION seems that just can compress ALL punctuation marks at one time...So, is there any better way to compress only "<= " and keep the decimal? 

However, this is just one example of my data. I need a resolution for all cases like this. Thank you!

Original    Compressed

<= 0.3             0.3

  0.58             0.58

 > 1.2              1.2

   45                45

[Kurt_Bremser]

data test;
original = "<= 0.3";
compressed = compress(original,'<=');
run;

proc print data=test;
run;

works.

Output:

Obs    original    compressed

 1      <= 0.3        0.3    

[JohnChen_TW]

Well, this will resolve only the first line of data. Thank you.

[Kalind_Patel]

Hi @JohnChen_TW;

You can use this line :

compressed = compress(original,'<=');

this will remove <= combination from the variaable;

But, on the third line you provided another special character in sample data,

so below code will not compress this special character;

so in this case you can use this code:

data test;
set test;
compressed=compress(original,'<');
compressed=compress(original,'=');
compressed=compress(original,'>');
run;

it will remove all the possible combination like: <=, <, =, >, => from the variable

[JohnChen_TW]

Kalind_Patel, thanks for your suggestion.
Well, maybe my question is unclear. The point is that I need to keep only "0.1", "1.5", ...and so on.
Thank you.

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

Well, its likely that you have other maths symbols, so maybe reverse the thinking, the below "k"eeps, only "d"igits and the decimal:

data test;
  original = "<= 0.3";
  compressed = compress(original,'.','kd');
run;

[JohnChen_TW]

Hi RW9,

Thanks for your answer! It resolved my question. 🙂