IN with a variable

[arodriguez]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to do a program and I get stocked when I need to search if a variable is one of the list of other variable.

I want to do something like this

Data example;

list="1,4,5";

target="3";

if target in list then put "WORKS";

run;

but it give me an error, anyone know an alternative way to do it?

Thanks in advance!

[RW9 · Accepted solution]

Well, first way which came to mind:

if index(list,target)>0 then "Found";

index gives you the first position of the target, or 0 if not found:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/64316/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a000212242.htm

There is also find(), findw() etc.

[arodriguez]

The only Function that come to my mind in this moment was the IN but both are right.

Thanks a lot.

[ballardw]

The SAS IN operator currently looks in a list of specific values.

You can use:

if Find(list, target)>0 then put "WORKS";

there are modifiers to ignore case and trailing blanks which may be needed when your target is shorter than its declared length.

Also FINDC if only ever searching for single character.

The INDEX function could also do similar but is always case sensitive.

[data_null__]

Not a LIST an ARRAY.

Data _null_;
   array list{3} (1,4,5);
   do target=3,4;
      if target in list then put "NOTE: WORKS " target=;
      end;
   run;

NOTE: WORKS target=4