Field comparison

[Sir_Lancelot]

I am trying to compare two fields and output the difference. Please see below example:

field_1	field_2	results
003,004,006	003,004	006
002,003,005	002,005	003
003,004	003,004,006	006
002,005	002,003,005	003

Thanks in advance

[RW9]

Will it always be like that, i.e. field_2 as a subet of field_1?  If so:

results=strip(tranwrd(field_1,field_2,""));

If not then you will need to loop through then:

data want;
  set have;
  do i=1 to countw(field_2,",");
    if findw(field_1,scan(field_2,i,","),",") then results=scan(field_2,i,",");
  end;
run;

Note that this only assumes one difference, other wise you will need:

    if findw(field_1,scan(field_2,i,","),",") then results=catx(",",results,scan(field_2,i,","));

[Astounding]

Do I need a cup of coffee, or should the FINDW result be compared to 0?

[RW9]

I would have tea myself.  But yes, I was going with the reverse mistakenly.  You can either compare with zero or not() it:

data want;
  set have;
  do i=1 to countw(field_2,",");
    if not(findw(field_1,scan(field_2,i,","),",")) then results=scan(field_2,i,",");
  end;
run;

[Ksharp]

data have;
input field_1 : $20.	field_2	:$20.;
a=translate(field_1,'|',',');
b=translate(field_2,'|',',');
x1=prxchange(cats('s/',b,'//'),-1,translate(field_1,' ',','));
x2=prxchange(cats('s/',a,'//'),-1,translate(field_2,' ',','));

want=catx(' ',x1,x2);
drop a b x1 x2;
cards;
003,004,006    003,004
002,003,005     002,005
003,004        003,004,006
002,005      002,003,005
;
run;

proc print noobs;run;

[ballardw]

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@Sir_Lancelot wrote:

I am trying to compare two fields and output the difference. Please see below example:

field_1	field_2	results
003,004,006	003,004	006
002,003,005	002,005	003
003,004	003,004,006	006
002,005	002,003,005	003

Thanks in advance

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And perhaps yet another example why having multiple values in a single field such as "003, 004, 006" is a poor idea in general.