How to trim leading characters only in a string

[mjizzle]

Hello, I have a dataset that has multiple names separated by '?' in single column. I was able to separate them but some of them have multiple '?' in front of them. Is there a way I can trim only the first '?' from the character name and not the others?

X= ?????BLAIN_BRUCE?CONOVER_SCOTTD?BEARDWOOD_JOHNP

I only want to remove ? from the beginning and not others. so I want the output to look like

BLAIN_BRUCE?CONOVER_SCOTTD?BEARDWOOD_JOHNP

x2=compress(x,'?') ;

But this compress removes all ?. I know there is a Btrim function but I would like to use it in data step. Is there anything I can do?

[SASKiwi]

Try the LEFT function.

[mjizzle]

Tried it, but doesnt it only work for removing spaces?

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

Hi @mjizzle 

data want;
X="?????BLAIN_BRUCE?CONOVER_SCOTTD?BEARDWOOD_JOHNP";
Want=substr(x,verify(x,'?'));
run;

If the above works, though simple as it looks, I owe my sincere gratitude to Guru/Master @data_null__  for tons of incredibly overwhelming variety of  solutions in his SAS-L posts. I recommend reading his posts

[mjizzle]

Perfect!!! It indeed solved my problem. Thank you so much to you and @data_null__

[SuryaKiran]

Alternatively, 

data test;
X= "?????BLAIN_BRUCE?CONOVER_SCOTTD?BEARDWOOD_JOHNP";
do until (scan(x,1,'?','m')^="");
x=substr(x,2);
end;
run;

[novinosrin]

Hi @SuryaKiran  I suppose this problem is rather much too simple and straight forward.

You could consider

Want=substr(x,(notpunct(x)));
Want=substr(x,(anyalnum(x)));

and there are many more related approaches so forth.