Want to remove the first "[" in this clause statement

[Dregerator]

Hi, The variable REFMATS has this information 

However, the code i have keeps outputting the first [ as a clause and would like to update the clause code to not take the first "["

REFMATS

[Type:ADRG, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :,[Type:P21 Report, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :,[Type:eSub Source Data Location, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :,[Type:eSub Data Package Location, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :

data work._ref_mat_info (label = "Reference Materials") ;
length clause $150 ;
set test.deliverables(obs=1) ;
where REFMATS ne "";
_i = 0 ;
do until(REFMATS = "") ;
_i + 1 ;
if _i >= 100 then stop ;
_pos = index(REFMATS,'[') ;
if _pos = 0 then do ;
clause = REFMATS ;
REFMATS = "" ;
end ;
else do ;
clause = substr(REFMATS,1,_pos) ;
REFMATS = substr(REFMATS,sum(_pos,1)) ;
end ;
output ;
end ;
*keep _ref_mat clause num text ;
run ;

The clause variable keeps outputting this and I would like the first "[" to not be taken. 

CLAUSE:

obs      CLAUSE

1           [

2          Type:ADRG, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :,[

3          Type:eSub Source Data Location, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :,[

4          Type:eSub Source Data Location, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :,[

5          Type:eSub Data Package Location, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :

Any help is appreciated 

[AMSAS · Accepted solution]

What are you attempting to achieve, i.e. what do you want as the output for a given input. 

I'm assuming you don't want the first observation in your output ("[") and probably none of the "["

Here's a potential solution using the scan function

data want ;
	string="[Type:ADRG, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :,[Type:P21 Report, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :,[Type:eSub Source Data Location, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :,[Type:eSub Data Package Location, URL :, Version : , Status : , Date : Notes :" ;
	n=1 ;
	word=scan(string,n,"[") ;
	do while (word ne "") ;
		output ;
		n=n+1 ;
		word=scan(string,n,"[") ;
	end ;
run ;

[LeonidBatkhan]

Hi Dregerator,

Here is a pair of complementary blog posts that I wrote recently:

• Removing leading characters from SAS strings
• Removing trailing characters from SAS strings

Hope this helps.