adding space

[geneshackman]

Hi all. Hopefully an easy question, for a Friday afternoon. A data set I read in has strings of numbers that look like this, this is one column in text format.

31.8 (29.7-33.9)

This is, for example, a rate and the confidence interval. i want to add a space before and after the dash, to make it look like this

31.8 (29.7 - 33.9)

Is this easy to do? Say the variable is "rate_ci".

[PeterClemmensen]

Use the Tranwrd Function

data _null_;
   n  = "31.8 (29.7-33.9)";
   nn = tranwrd(n, "-", " - ");
   put n = / nn =;
run;

Result:

n=31.8 (29.7-33.9)
nn=31.8 (29.7 - 33.9)

[geneshackman]

Ah, sorry, i didn't give enough information. It's not just this number, there are a bunch of numbers, all having the same format. I want to change them all.

[Reeza]

Please show a more representative example of your data.

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@geneshackman wrote:
Ah, sorry, i didn't give enough information. It's not just this number, there are a bunch of numbers, all having the same format. I want to change them all.

---

[geneshackman]

Group Category rate low high rate_ci
Gender Male 31.4 28.5 34.4 31.4 (28.5-34.4)
Gender Female 31.4 29.1 33.7 31.4 (29.1-33.7)
Gender Female 31.5 24.4 38.6 31.5 (24.4-38.6)

[geneshackman]

Group Category rate low high rate_ci
Gender Male 31.4 28.5 34.4 31.4 (28.5-34.4)
Gender Female 31.4 29.1 33.7 31.4 (29.1-33.7)
Gender Female 31.5 24.4 38.6 31.5 (24.4-38.6)

[Reeza]

How did you generate this table? Did you use a macro or data step? I'm guessing going back and fixing the code that generated this table is the right place to fix the issue and would be as simple as adding spaces in the CATX function most likely.

[geneshackman]

I'm reading in a data set someone else created.

[Tom · Accepted solution]

---

@geneshackman wrote:
Group Category rate low high rate_ci
Gender Male 31.4 28.5 34.4 31.4 (28.5-34.4)
Gender Female 31.4 29.1 33.7 31.4 (29.1-33.7)
Gender Female 31.5 24.4 38.6 31.5 (24.4-38.6)

---

Let's assume you are trying to show us what the dataset HAVE looks like.  And that the last column in your listing is the variable name RATE_CI.  So to create a new dataset named WANT with the corrected version of RATE_CI run code like this:

data want;
  set have;
  rate_ci = tranwrd(rate_ci,'-',' - ');
run;

Check the results and make sure that adding the two extra space characters didn't cause it to run out of room to store the full string.  That is make sure the right parenthesis haven't disappeared in the new dataset.

[geneshackman]

Thanks!

[geneshackman]

sorry, i can't seem to get it to show up with the columns lined up.

[Reeza]

Use the code block to ensure your data shows up as needed or ideally create a data step as noted here: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/How-to-create-a-data-step-version-of-your-dat...

[geneshackman]

Thanks very much! This was what I wanted.

[JosvanderVelden]

Yes it's easy. You could for replace the '-' with ' - '. There are several ways to do that. You can use sas functions or if you prefer you can use regular expressions. One example is in the thread https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/Find-And-Replace-within-a-string/td-p/45104.
Best regards, Jos

[geneshackman]

Hi. Sorry to say I can't follow the example in the thread. How would I use a sas function? Thanks.