Need to get rid of () in a variable

[fadtt]

Hi everyone,

please I need assistance to resolve an issue. The issue is on how to use macro to remove parenthesis () from variable string. For example given the following variables:

(cup table plates iron street home) but I need the remove the () in order to work with the variables.

Thanks.

[art297]

You can get rid of them by using the compress function.  e.g.:

data have;

  informat stuff $80.;

  input stuff &;

  have=compress(stuff,"()");

  cards;

(cup table plates iron street home)

;

[fadtt]

Thanks art297 I know that is possible but I like to solve this using macro function.

[Reeza]

To clarify are you looking to USE a macro function or to create a macro to do this.

If you want to create a macro what do you envision as the input and what as the output?

Some of the macro functions you'll can look into are:

%scan

%if %then %do

Or you could just wap the compress function in a macro .

You could always use a find or index function in a data _null_ step.

Basically there's many ways to do this and it sounds a lot like a home work question to me.

You should also move this thread to the macro language forum.