Remove letter or number from string by using compress?

[ybz12003]

Hello, 

I try to use "compress" to remove the letter or number from the string.   Somehow it didn't work.   Please let me know how to fix it.

ID_=compress(strip(upcase(ID)),'A0'x);

Below is some sample strings:

• BIPAP (BIPHASIC POSITIVE AIRWAY PRESSURE) DEPENDENCE, CHRONIC RESPIRATORY FAILURE
• CHRONIC RESPIRATORY FAILURE & VENT/TRACH DEPENDENT

I expect the result is shown below.

• (),
• & / 

[PaigeMiller]

This is a great situation where you should just look at the documentation. What option of the COMPRESS function removes numbers? What option of the COMPRESS function removes letters?

Documentation: https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmmvacdc/9.4/lefunctionsref/n0fcshr0ir3h73n1b845c4aq58hz.htm

I'll get you started: remove letters

ID_=compress(strip(ID), ,'a');

I assign you the homework to figure out how to remove numbers.

[ybz12003]

The link is not working...

[PaigeMiller]

Works for me. What error do you get?

[ybz12003]

Page Not Found

[Kurt_Bremser]

Works for me also. From where are you accessing the internet? Maybe a badly configured firewall interferes.

[Tom]

But you only asked it to remove that single character with the hexcode of A0.

COMPRESS(source ,< characters> ,< modifier(s)>)

[ybz12003]

What's X for?

[Tom]

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@ybz12003 wrote:
What's X for?

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Why are you asking me? You posted the code:

ID_=compress(strip(upcase(ID)),'A0'x);

This code is requesting that any instances of the character represented by the hexadecimal code A0 be removed.   That code is frequently used on Web pages as a non-breaking space so that multiple word phrases are not wrapped in the middle. 

The letter X after a quoted string indicts a string literal in hexadecimal notation.  Just like the letter D after a quoted string indicates a date literal in a style that the DATE informat can interpret. 

[ybz12003]

I got the code from the someone else.

[ybz12003]

So, it seems like the code below works for the result I want, which needs to have three arguments instead of two. 

ID_=compress(strip(upcase(ID_)), , 'A');

But I still don't understand why two arguments are not working.  

ID_=compress(strip(upcase(ID_)), 'A');

[Tom]

The first one is using the modifier A.  The second one is just asking to remove the capital letter A.

COMPRESS(source ,< characters> ,< modifier(s)>)

[PaigeMiller]

Why do you write in your original message about removing numbers, and then give no example where numbers should be removed?

[ybz12003]

Because the actual data contain numbers and charater.

[PaigeMiller]

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@ybz12003 wrote:
Because the actual data contain numbers and charater.

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So to help all of us in the future, from now on, please give us representative examples that illustrate the ENTIRE problem; in this case, examples involving numbers, and examples involving characters.