Hold the spaces while compress function

[SASdevAnneMarie]

Hello Experts,

I'm wondering how to hold the spaces while using the compress function. The values of my variable is X='TYPE 1 INDEX 2'. 

When I use compress(X||' '||'P3') I have 'TYPE1INDEX2 P3', I would like to have TYPE 1 INDEX 2 P3

There is some option for compress function please or, in this case, the STRIP function is better ?

Thank you for helping !

[maguiremq]

I can't tell if this is what you want, but it seemed like a variant that's acceptable.

data have;
x = "TYPE 1 INDEX 2";
y = prxchange("s/(?<!\d)\s//", -1, x);
run;

Obs x y 
1 TYPE 1 INDEX 2 TYPE1 INDEX2 

If you're unfamiliar with regular expressions, these resources will be helpful.

https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/lefunctionsref/n0r8h2fa8djqf1n1cnenrvm573br.h... 

https://support.sas.com/rnd/base/datastep/perl_regexp/regexp-tip-sheet.pdf 

[andreas_lds · Accepted solution]

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@SASdevAnneMarie wrote:

Hello Experts,

I'm wondering how to hold the spaces while using the compress function. The values of my variable is X='TYPE 1 INDEX 2'. 

When I use compress(X) I have 'TYPE1INDEX2'.

Thank you for helping !

---

But, why are you calling compress?

[AnujaNagpal]

Can you share what are you expecting the output to look like? Compress might not be the right choice of function here based on what you are trying to do. 

[Ksharp]

It is depended on what you need after COMPRESS().

data have;
x = "TYPE 1 INDEX 2";
y = compress(x,' ','kw');
run;

[Oligolas]

Hi,

You may be looking for this

compbl(X||' '||'P3')