Extract first letters from each variable left to right and right to left

[pavank]

data have;
    input Name $ Gender $ City $12.;
    datalines;
Srilakshmi Female Hyderabad
Vamika Female Bangalore
Prajwal Male Mumbai
;
run;

data want;
    set have;
    City = substr(City, 1, 1);
    Gender = substr(Gender, 1, 1);
    Name = substr(scan(Name, 1), 1, 1);
    drop Name Gender City;
    left_to_right=catx(' ',name,gender,city);
    right_to_left=catx(' ',city,gender,name);
run;

Hi Guys ,

Here i want to extract first letter from each variable left to right and right to left 

is it correct way or any other method to achieve could you please give solution

[PaigeMiller]

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@pavank wrote:

Here i want to extract first letter from each variable left to right and right to left 

is it correct way or any other method to achieve could you please give solution

---

You don't have to ask us "is it correct". You run the code and see if it is correct.

This is a relatively short piece of code and if it does what you want, then I wouldn't bother searching for another solution (unless your question is purely to learn alternatives)

[Astounding]

It looks like your program drops the original variabes.  Nothing wrong with that, but if you don't need them this simplification comes to mind:

data want;
   length city gender name $ 1;
    set have;
    drop Name Gender City;
    left_to_right=catx(' ',name,gender,city);
    right_to_left=catx(' ',city,gender,name);
run;

Just shorten the variables, and forget about SUBSTR.

[data_null__]

Check or the FIRST function.

https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/lefunctionsref/p1af3wnk52qg49n1xcdk1wpcmucy.h... 

[Patrick]

@pavank Nothing wrong with your code but there are of course almost always a multitude of coding options. Here one more:

data want;
    set have;
    length left_to_right right_to_left $5;
    keep left_to_right right_to_left;
    left_to_right=catx(' ',first(name),first(gender),first(city));
    right_to_left=reverse(left_to_right);;
run;