Count the number of pipes within Macro

[SASAna]

Hi SAS Users,

I wanted some help with getting the count of pipes '|' of a macro variable.

 %LET DLM_COUNT = COUNTC(&PLATFORM,') +1;  

&PLATFORM has value like 'ABC|DEF|GHI|QWE'

So i am expecting to 4 in DLM_COUNT.

Thanks,

Ana

[mkeintz · Accepted solution]

Countc is a regulare sas function, not a macro function.  So it has to be called via  %sysfunc;

Also, you seem to want to count WORDs, where | is the separator:

%let PLATFORM =ABC|DEF|GHI|QWE;

%LET DLM_COUNT = %sysfunc(COUNTW(&PLATFORM,|));

%put &=dlm_count;

[SASAna]

Thanks much for the quick reply. It worked very well.

[Astounding]

Modifying your attempt slightly:

%let dlm_count = %sysfunc(countc(&platform, |));

I can't test it right now, but it looks like it should work.

In retrospect, COUNTW counts the number of words using pipes as delimiters.  COUNTC counts number of pipes.  Either is possible, just pick the one that does what you need.