BookmarkSubscribeRSS Feed
☑ This topic is solved. Need further help from the community? Please sign in and ask a new question.
SASuserlot
Barite | Level 11

I have the following scenario:

I have to find if the string "text" has more than 4 spaces then I want to replace the fourth "space" with the string "[ESC]". Otherwise, we don't insert any strings.  If replacing is complicated, I am okay with inserting a string after the fourth space. Thank you for your help.

Example: "I am happy to[ESC]be part of this group"

 data have;
  text = "I am happy to be part of this group";
  output;
  text = "This SAS Group is Amazing";
  output;
  text = " Thank you";
  output;

 run;
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
PaigeMiller
Diamond | Level 26
data have1;
    set have;
    fourth_word=scan(text,4,' ');
    location_of_fourth_word=findw(text,cats(' ',fourth_word));
    length_of_fourth_word=length(fourth_word);
    if not missing(fourth_word) then 
        replace_text=cats(substr(text,1,location_of_fourth_word+length_of_fourth_word-1),'[ESC]',
        substr(text,location_of_fourth_word+length_of_Fourth_word));
    else replace_text=text;
run;
--
Paige Miller

View solution in original post

8 REPLIES 8
PaigeMiller
Diamond | Level 26
data have1;
    set have;
    fourth_word=scan(text,4,' ');
    location_of_fourth_word=findw(text,cats(' ',fourth_word));
    length_of_fourth_word=length(fourth_word);
    if not missing(fourth_word) then 
        replace_text=cats(substr(text,1,location_of_fourth_word+length_of_fourth_word-1),'[ESC]',
        substr(text,location_of_fourth_word+length_of_Fourth_word));
    else replace_text=text;
run;
--
Paige Miller
Quentin
Super User

Can you show the code you have tried? 

 

This blog from leonid Batkhan might help:

https://blogs.sas.com/content/sgf/2019/06/26/finding-n-th-instance-of-a-substring-within-a-string/

 

Another approach would be to use the CALL SCAN routine, which can return the position of the 5th word.

https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/lefunctionsref/n0ecxfx00bn8i4n1vhh8up24ha6x.h...

 

 

The Boston Area SAS Users Group is hosting free webinars!
Next webinar will be in January 2025. Until then, check out our archives: https://www.basug.org/videos. And be sure to subscribe to our our email list.
Ksharp
Super User
 data have;
  text = "I am happy to be part of this group";
  output;
  text = "This SAS Group is Amazing";
  output;
  text = " Thank you";
  output;
 run;

 data want;
  set have;
  want=prxchange('s/(^\S+\s+\S+\s+\S+\s+\S+)\s+/\1[ESC]/',1,left(text));
run;
SASuserlot
Barite | Level 11

Thank you  for your time @Ksharp . That's awesome which can be done in one step 😮. what's the 'S+' and 's+' signifies in the prxchange ?

 

Thank you @PaigeMiller  @ErikLund_Jensen  @mkeintz @Ksharp . All of you guys are amazing.  unfortunately I have to chose one as Answer😑.

Ksharp
Super User
'S+' means one or more non-space characters .
and 's+' mean one or more space characters .
ErikLund_Jensen
Rhodochrosite | Level 12

Hi @SASuserlot 

 

This is using a prxchange similar to the one provided by @Ksharp , but with an added check on the number of words  in the string. This is to avoid insert of {ESC] at the end of the string, if there are exactly 4 words.

data have;
  text = "I am happy to be part of this group";
  output;
  text = "This SAS Group is      Amazing";
  output;
  text = "Thank you very much";
  output;
  text = "Thanks for everything";
  output;
  text = " Thank you";
  output;
run;

data want;
  length text $200;
  set have; 
  if countw(text,' ') > 4 then
    text = prxchange('s/(\S+\s+\S+\s+\S+\s+\S+)(\s*)(.*)/$1[ESC]$3/',1,catt(text));
run;
mkeintz
PROC Star
data have;
  text = " I am happy  to  be part of this group";
  output;
  text = "This SAS Group is Amazing";
  output;
  text = " Thank you";
  output;
 run;

data want (drop=_:);
  set have;
  text=left(compbl(text));
  length newtext $40;
  if countw(text) > 4 then do;
    _four_word_length=length(catx(' ',scan(text,1),scan(text,2),scan(text,3),scan(text,4)))+1;
    newtext=cats(substr(text,1,_four_word_length),'[ESC]',substr(text,_four_word_length+1));
  end;
run;
--------------------------
The hash OUTPUT method will overwrite a SAS data set, but not append. That can be costly. Consider voting for Add a HASH object method which would append a hash object to an existing SAS data set

Would enabling PROC SORT to simultaneously output multiple datasets be useful? Then vote for
Allow PROC SORT to output multiple datasets

--------------------------

SAS Innovate 2025: Register Now

Registration is now open for SAS Innovate 2025 , our biggest and most exciting global event of the year! Join us in Orlando, FL, May 6-9.
Sign up by Dec. 31 to get the 2024 rate of just $495.
Register now!

How to Concatenate Values

Learn how use the CAT functions in SAS to join values from multiple variables into a single value.

Find more tutorials on the SAS Users YouTube channel.

SAS Training: Just a Click Away

 Ready to level-up your skills? Choose your own adventure.

Browse our catalog!

Discussion stats
  • 8 replies
  • 1765 views
  • 5 likes
  • 6 in conversation