How to replace a substring at first instance in a string

[Siva_Harish]

Hi Folks,

i have data like beloow

i want to replace soft in software as hard at first instance only but not in consecutive cases

data have;

input string $100.;

datalines;

He is a software and a software programmer

software and a hardware

;

want

He is a hardware and software programmer

hardware and a hardware worker

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

data have;
infile cards truncover;
input string $100.;

datalines;
He is a software and a software programmer
software and a hardware
;

data want;
 set have;
 substr(string,index(string,'soft'),4)='hard';
run;
proc print noobs;run;

[Siva_Harish]

Thank you!! @novinosrin