How to use %syscall scan?

[whymath]

Hi, everyone.

Would you mind share me an usage example of %syscall scan() ? Thanks.

[Patrick]

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@whymath wrote:

Hi, everyone.

Would you mind share me an usage example of %syscall scan() ? Thanks.

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%syscall() is for using call routines on macro level, %sysfunc() for using functions on macro level.

scan() is a SAS function.

But...using %sysfunc() for the scan() function is not necessary as you've also got macro function %scan() for this.

%let string=abc def ghi;
%put test1: %sysfunc(scan(&string,2));
%put test2: %scan(&string,2);

28         %let string=abc def ghi;
29         %put test1: %sysfunc(scan(&string,2));
test1: def
30         %put test2: %scan(&string,2);
test2: def

[andreas_lds]

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@whymath wrote:

Hi, everyone.

Would you mind share me an usage example of %syscall scan() ? Thanks.

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I rarely use call scan() it all, so i don't have an example at hand. Do you mind explaining the task you are working on (including some data), so that we can try to provide an example? Will functions/call-routines in the macro-world: don't use any kind of quotes.

[whymath]

Severl days ago I was going to design a function findi() to find the ith position of a char or a string in a charater string. It seemed I went the wrong way and sadly I forgot the flash of thoughts. Thank you for you kind.

[Patrick · Accepted solution]

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@whymath wrote:

Hi, everyone.

Would you mind share me an usage example of %syscall scan() ? Thanks.

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Oh, there is actually a call scan() routine. Never used it ever.

After some try and error below appears to work.

%let string=abc def ghi;
%let cnt=2;
%let pos=0;
%let len=0;
%syscall SCAN(string, cnt, pos, len );
%put &=cnt &=pos &=len;

CNT=2 POS=5 LEN=3