Split the values in different columns

[nickspencer]

I have a SAS dataset with a column main_col that might have values of any length. I need to split the main_col into multiple columns col1-col10. Each column should be of length $500.

What can be the best way to do that?

Thanks

[PaigeMiller]

You could use the LENGTH function to find the length of a character string in each observation, that way you will know how many blocks of 500 characters are needed. Then you can create a loop using the SUBSTR function to extract characters 1 to 500 and then 501 to 1000 and so on.

[Reeza]

Depends on how it's delimited. Use COUNTW() to get the number of words, use SCAN() and a DO loop to go through and parse it. There's lots of examples on here that you can reference - check the related topics side bar on the right hand side of the page.