parsing a character string into new variables

[mstergia]

Thanks Quinn; I am being told that 12 is the maximum.  However, what if one didn`t know the max?

[mstergia]

Thanks Quinn - that was exactly the problem. What if one didn`t know the array upbound. Is there a way to write the code when you don`t know what that # is?

[Quinn]

1. use COUNTC() function.

2. use the variable prefix as the array name.

Hope it helps.

L.L.

proc sql;

select max(countc(TrainingTopic,';'))+1  into: max_ct from ...;

quit;

data ... ;

...

array Topic(&max_ct) $100 ;

...

[mstergia]

Wondering, what does the * do rather than putting the max # of observations in the () in :  array parsed_vars(*) new_var1-new_var6;

Trying to understand the diff between putting parsed_vars(*) vs. parsed_vars(6)?

Also, what if you didn`t know the max # of observations?  what would you do in that case if you only wanted the first 6?

Thanks!