Counting words embedded in quotes

[keen_sas]

Hi All,

Below is the sample text and the count of words as result in COUNT column . When using COUNTW function the default delimiter is space , it is applicable for first row , when using the same COUNTW with space as delimiter it is counting Prime minister as two different words , though it is single word. Tried with multiple delimiters and modifiers in COUNTW function , but still could not get the desired result. Can anyone suggest how to count the words in double quotes as single word, even though if there are multiple words present in those quotes or even empty quotes should also be counted as one word.

S.no	TEXT	COUNT
1	"Minister" "governor" "President"	3 words are present
2	"Chief Minister" "Prime Minister" "Cabinet Minister\Defence Secretary" "General" ""	5 words are present including the last empty double quotes

[Ksharp · Accepted solution]

data have;
name='"Minister" "governor" "President"                                                     ';
n=countw(name,' ','q');
output;

name='"Chief Minister" "Prime Minister" "Cabinet Minister\Defence Secretary" "General" "" ';
n=countw(name,' ','q');
output;
run;

[keen_sas]

Thank you , not sure how i missed this "q" Modifier.