regex match dataset but not infile

[rudfaden3]

Hallo.

I have a file '~/test.sas' which contains one line

    %metalibm(inlibdw);             * Bankdata DW;

when i run

data test2;
infile "~/test.sas" truncover;
input line $char100.;
commentEnd=prxparse('/(\*\/|;$)/');
end_=prxmatch(commentEnd,line);
run;

I get end_=0.But if I input the line in a dataset

data test3;
line=' %metalibm(inlibdw); * Bankdata DW;';
commentEnd=prxparse('/(\*\/|;$)/');
end_=prxmatch(commentEnd,line);
run;

I get end_=50 wich is corret.

Any idea of why this happens?

[Tom · Accepted solution]

You seem to be comparing apples to oranges here.

Change your second data step to define LINE as being of length $100 so that it matches how SAS guessed you wanted the variable defined in the first data step.

Your REGEX needs to account for the trailing spaces that will be present in a SAS variable.  

[data_null__]

trim(line)

[Oligolas]

Hi,

consider the trailing blanks in your line variable with length=100.

You are expecting a semi-colon at end of line, but you have a semi-colon followed by blanks instead

Consider adding \s* to your regex or use strip(line) in prxmatch

data test3;
line=' %metalibm(inlibdw); * Bankdata DW;';
commentEnd=prxparse('/(\*\/|;$)/');
end_=prxmatch(commentEnd,strip(line));
run;

 Edit: or trim(line) like @data_null__ said