remove all special characters

[Ronein]

Hello

What is the way to remove all special characters

The current value is     /a/s/vvv122!!@#jfjfjf2222/-

and desired value is     asvvv122jfjfjf2222

data aaa;
x='/a/s/vvv122!!@#jfjfjf2222/-';
w1=compress(x, '/');/*remove / */
w2=compress(x,'','kd');/*Keeps only digits*/
w3=compress(x,"","ka");/*Keep only alphanumeric characters*/
w4=compress(x, ' ', 'A');/*Keeps only digits and special characters*/
Run;

[PeterClemmensen · Accepted solution]

Seems like this is what you want?

data _null_;
    x='/a/s/vvv122!!@#jfjfjf2222/-';
    y=compress(x,'','kad');
    put y;
run;

[saidatta]

i've read ur code and then i have a doubt what if we only keep special char thanks in advance

[Sathish_jammy]

w5=compress(x,"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890","k");/*Keeps only digits and characters*/

If you are sure about the variable listed only character and numeric then use the given code.

[Emma_at_SAS]

Thank you Sathish_Jammy! It was very easy to use your code!

[PeterClemmensen]

Alternatively

data _null_;
    x='/a/s/vvv122!!@#jfjfjf2222/-';
    y=prxchange('s/\W//', -1, x); 
    put y;
run;

[Jagadishkatam]

Alternatively with perl regular expression to perform the below 4 actions

data aaa;
x='/a/s/vvv122!!@#jfjfjf2222/-';
w1=prxchange('s#/##',-1,x); /*remove / */
w2=prxchange('s#\D*##',-1,x);/*Keeps only digits*/
w3=prxchange('s#(\W)##i',-1,x);/*Keeps only digits*/
w4=prxchange('s#[[:alpha:]]##i',-1,x);/*Keeps only digits and special characters*/
Run;

[Anandkvn]

Hi Jagadeesh

Your regular expressions solutions are very impressive please give any videos  on regx