parsing a character string into new variables

[GreggB]

I found the code I think I need and made a few edits but my new vars are numeric rather than char. I need char vars;

data I have:

sp

doe, john;doe, jane;doe, jack

data i want:

sp1                   sp2            sp3

doe, john         doe, jane   doe, jack

Code:

data betty3;
set betty2;
array parsed_vars(*) sp1-sp3;
i=1;
do while(scan(sp, i, ";") ne "");
parsed_vars(i) =scan(sp, i, ";");
i+1;
end;
run;

[art297 · Accepted solution]

Specify that the array is character. e.g.

array parsed_vars(*)  $25. sp1-sp3;

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

[collinelliot]

You need to specify that your array is character with a "$"

You also will probably want to assign some appropriate length to the variables you created or you might see truncation.