I am trying to create an expense report where I am categorizing transactions based on certain keywords (e.g. if a transaction line contains STARBUCKS, categorize it as EATING-OUT). I am using the following but notice that the command does not always work (as in does not assign transactions to categories all the time. Is there a better way to do this other than the following?
if prxmatch ("m/BAKE & BEANS|Smart Sushi |Columbus Coffee|Coffee Club|Mozaic|Menulog|Kyoto|Baxters| NZ Natural|Rio|yoway|yoghurt||Dogmatic|Donut|Thanya|Nol|Bean/i",details) > 0 then Category = "Eat-Out";
There is no reason this should fail if done properly.
Do you have an example of data that is missed?
Note that you have a double pipe || in the example you gave.
Or... Could it be that you look for spaces when you shouldn't? Try:
if prxmatch ("m/BAKE & BEANS|Smart Sushi |Columbus Coffee|Coffee Club|Mozaic|Menulog|Kyoto|Baxters|" ||"NZ Natural|Rio|yoway|yoghurt|Dogmatic|Donut|Thanya|Nol|Bean/i",details
) > 0 then category = "Eat-Out";
Thanks. You are correct. I had some small syntax errors and some classification errors. All works now.
Are you ready for the spotlight? We're accepting content ideas for SAS Innovate 2025 to be held May 6-9 in Orlando, FL. The call is open until September 25. Read more here about why you should contribute and what is in it for you!
Learn how use the CAT functions in SAS to join values from multiple variables into a single value.
Find more tutorials on the SAS Users YouTube channel.