Reanaming observations

[sanjay1]

HI SAS Experts,

I am tryng to replace a group of words of an observations with its starting letter, is there is anyway to do this. Please help

Sample dataset.

data a;
input name$;
cards;
name_ks_a_dfdfdf
name_ks_a_hjhj
name_class__hhjghjh
name_class___jnjjjk
name_marks_ghgjk
name_marks_ghjkjk
;run;

output:

name1
n_k_a_dfdfdf
n_k_a_hjhj
n_c_hhjghjh
n_c_jnjjjk
n_m_ghgjk
n_m_ghjkjk

Best Regards,

Sanjay

[PeterClemmensen]

You want to replace strings of text separated by _ by their starting letter, but not the last part, correct?

[sanjay1]

yes Exactly

[sanjay1]

Yes Exactly

[RW9]

Weird request.  Sounds like your process is broken before this.  You can do it:

data a;
  length name $200;
  input name $;
cards;
name_ks_a_dfdfdf
name_ks_a_hjhj
name_class__hhjghjh
name_class___jnjjjk
name_marks_ghgjk
name_marks_ghjkjk
;
run;
data want;
  set a;
  length new_name $200;
  new_name=catx("_","n",char(scan(name,2,"_"),1),reverse(scan(reverse(name),1,"_")));
run;

[Astounding]

One way:

data want;

set have;

length new_name $ 100 letter $ 1;

n_words = countw(name, '_');

if n_words <= 1 then return;

do i=1 to n_words - 1;

   letter = scan(name, i, '_');

   new_name = catx('_', new_name, letter);

end;

new_name = catx('_', new_name, scan(name, -1, '_'));

drop letter;

run;