prxmatch not working with variable names as parameter

[SASAna]

Hi SAS users,

I need help with the below issue. proc_cd data is coming like 1234|2348 pipe delimited, and i need to check these values against excel entries ( Ex : '1234' ,'2346','5678').

I tried this below small example with hard coded manual entry values , it worked fine. But when i pass the variable names i am getting warning and 0 observations.

Works -

proc sql;
create table total as
select * from test b
where prxmatch("!(1234|2348)!i" , '1234' ,'2346') > 0
;
Quit;

Does not work -

proc sql;
create table total as
select * from test b
where prxmatch("!(proc_cd)!i" , &proc) > 0
;
Quit;

 WARNING: Function PRXMATCH requires at most 2 argument(s). The extra one(s) will be ignored.

[ChrisNZ · Accepted solution]

1.The first query cannot possible be valid as you have 3 parameters.

2.This might help:

proc sql;
  create table TOTAL as
  select * from TEST 
  where prxmatch(cats("!",PROC_CD,"!i") , VAR) > 0;
quit;

Parentheses are unneeded here.

The i modifier is unneeded too if you only have digits to test.

[SASAna]

Thank you ! it worked very well.