Programming help

[kumarsandip975]

Dear Members,

I have below piece of inputs with comma separated entries with 5 columns. I need to extract only column first (e.g, ABC), four (e.g., 654), and fifth (e.g., 14/04/2023 14:17:14), can someone suggest best way to get these. 

Input:

"ABC","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202302.csv",654,14/04/2023 14:17:14
"ABC","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202302.csv.bak",654,14/04/2023 14:00:41
"XYZ","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202303.csv",5770,14/04/2023 14:17:39
"XYZ","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202303.csv.bak",5770,14/04/2023 09:49:28
"DEF","DATA","G:\Data\CES individuele.xlsx",104637,23/03/2023 14:53:38
"DEF","DATA","G:\Data\CES.xlsx",23370,23/03/2023 14:53:19
"DEF","DATA","G:\Data\12GR.csv",539,08/02/2023 15:12:13

Output:

"ABC",654,14/04/2023 14:17:14
"ABC",654,14/04/2023 14:00:41
"XYZ",5770,14/04/2023 14:17:39
"XYZ",5770,14/04/2023 09:49:28
"DEF",104637,23/03/2023 14:53:38
"DEF",23370,23/03/2023 14:53:19
"DEF",539,08/02/2023 15:12:13

[LinusH]

I would probably import all fields and then use DROP or KEEP statement to get the desired output.

[s_lassen]

You can "skip" variables by reading them into a dummy (which you drop):

data want;                                                                                                                              
  infile cards delimiter=',';                                                                                                           
  length dummy $8 first $8 four 8 fifth $30;                                                                                            
  input first dummy dummy four fifth;                                                                                                   
  drop dummy;                                                                                                                           
cards;                                                                                                                                  
"ABC","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202302.csv",654,14/04/2023 14:17:14                                                                           
"ABC","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202302.csv.bak",654,14/04/2023 14:00:41                                                                       
"XYZ","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202303.csv",5770,14/04/2023 14:17:39                                                                          
"XYZ","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202303.csv.bak",5770,14/04/2023 09:49:28                                                                      
"DEF","DATA","G:\Data\CES individuele.xlsx",104637,23/03/2023 14:53:38                                                                  
"DEF","DATA","G:\Data\CES.xlsx",23370,23/03/2023 14:53:19                                                                               
"DEF","DATA","G:\Data\12GR.csv",539,08/02/2023 15:12:13                                                                                 
;run;          

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

I would suggest reading that fifth column as a datetime value.

data want;                                                                                                                              
  infile cards delimiter=',';                                                                                                           
  length dummy $8 first $8 four 8;
  informat fifth anydtdtm30.;       
  format fifth datetime19.; 
  input first dummy dummy four fifth;                                                                                                   
  drop dummy;                                                                                                                           
cards;                                                                                                                                  
"ABC","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202302.csv",654,14/04/2023 14:17:14                                                                           
"ABC","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202302.csv.bak",654,14/04/2023 14:00:41                                                                       
"XYZ","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202303.csv",5770,14/04/2023 14:17:39                                                                          
"XYZ","DATA","G:\Data\ces 202303.csv.bak",5770,14/04/2023 09:49:28                                                                      
"DEF","DATA","G:\Data\CES individuele.xlsx",104637,23/03/2023 14:53:38                                                                  
"DEF","DATA","G:\Data\CES.xlsx",23370,23/03/2023 14:53:19                                                                               
"DEF","DATA","G:\Data\12GR.csv",539,08/02/2023 15:12:13                                                                                 
;run;