Perl regular expression

[Suzy_Cat]

Hi there,

Any one can help me on Perl regular expression:

Example:

data have;

input ID:$1. Words :$50.;

datalines;

A Googled

B G.O.L

C GOL

D "G O L"

;

run;

data test;

set have;

Check=prxmatch("/GOL|G.O.L|G O L/", words);

run;

The result I need is B,C,D but not A by using prxmatch

Thanks for help 🙂

[novinosrin · Accepted solution]

Hi @Suzy_Cat  You have answered your question. What's the problem? Are you asking to subset?

data have;

input ID:$1. Words  $50.;

datalines;
A Googled
B G.O.L
C GOL
D "G O L"
;


run;

data test;

set have;

if prxmatch("/GOL|G.O.L|G O L/", words);

run;

[Suzy_Cat]

whoops my bad, accidently put / instead of | between, no wonder it was not working earlier...

Check=prxmatch("/GOL|G.O.L/G O L/", words);

also there is an extra : when i tested earlier

data have;

input ID:$1. Words :$50.;

datalines;

A Googled

B G.O.L

C GOL

D "G O L"

;

run;

[novinosrin]

A precise regex would be

data test;

set have;
if prxmatch("/G(\.|\s)?O(\.|\s)?L/", words);

run;

checking for dot and blank whitespace char with ? making the check of the captured buffer optional 

[Suzy_Cat]

@novinosrin, That is exactly what i wanted! Thanks heaps for the help out 🙂

[novinosrin]

Hi @Suzy_Cat  A further spice by not having create capture buffer 2 as we can back reference. I'm an idiot sometimes. 

So

data have;

input ID:$1. Words  $50.;

datalines;
A Googled
B G.O.L
C GOL
D "G O L"
;


run;

data test;

set have;
if prxmatch("/G(\.|\s)?O\1?L/", words);

run;

[Suzy_Cat]

Even better! Noted down the formula for future usage.

[ChrisNZ]

What's the problem?

Maybe this is simpler?

CHECK = prxmatch('/G\W?O\W?L/', WORDS);

[Suzy_Cat]

Thank you Chris,

Your suggestion is exactly what I was after...

🙂