Compress not working as I expected

[a079011]

I am trying to use compress and I am not getting the results I expected. Here is my code;

OPTION NOCENTER ERRORS=1;      
DATA espin;                    
 FORMAT n_job  $CHAR8.;                                   
 txt = 'ITCSUN.PLF(AITCC02)';                           
 e_ptr=INDEX(txt,'(');         
 IF e_ptr>0;                   
   n_job=SUBSTR(txt,1,e_ptr-1);
   n_job=COMPRESS(n_job,'.');  

after i run this my n_job is "ITCSUNP".

Obs    n_job               txt                                 e_ptr                                               
 1     ITCSUNP     ITCSUN.PLF(AITCC02)      11

what I expected it to be is "ITCSUN" (without the P). Cannot figure out why compress is keeping the only the "p" and not cutting off everything after the '.'.

Any thoughts, help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[ScottBass · Accepted solution]

txt = 'ITCSUN.PLF(AITCC02)';  

e_ptr=INDEX(txt,'('); finds the column position of the first '('

n_job=SUBSTR(txt,1,e_ptr-1); sets n_job to the string starting from 1 to the column position of '(' - 1.

So n_job is now 'ITCSUN.PLF'

n_job=COMPRESS(n_job,'.');  removes '.' from n_job, so n_job is now 'ITCSUNPLF'

And you're formatting n_job as $CHAR8., so n_job *appears* as ITCSUNPL

If you want to retain only the text preceding the '.', consider using the SCAN function instead.  If what you want is 'ITCSUN', then all of that can be simplified as n_job=scan(txt,1,'.');

Consider removing or commenting out your format statement until you get the data transformation code debugged.  In fact I doubt you need the format statement at all.