scan function

[margi123]

Hi,

My question is the code like,

data work.test;
title='A TALE OF TWO CITIES, CHARLES J. DICKENS'
WORD=SCAN(title,3,' ,');
run;

What is the value of word?
A. T
B. OF
C.DICKENS
D. ''MISSING CHARACTER VALUE

I have run this code in sas like,

data work1;
input title $ 1-39;
datalines;
A TALE OF TWO CITIES, CHARLES J. DICKENS
run;
data work1;
WORD=SCAN(title,3,' ,');
run;

And i got log message like,

1 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

61

62 data work1;

63 input title $ 1-39;

64 datalines;

NOTE: The data set WORK.WORK1 has 1 observations and 1 variables.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.01 seconds

cpu time 0.01 seconds

66 WORD=SCAN(title,3);

66 WORD=SCAN(title,3);

____

180

ERROR 180-322: Statement is not valid or it is used out of proper order.

67 run;

68 data work1;

69 WORD=SCAN(title,3,' ,');

70 run;

NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).

69:11

NOTE: Variable title is uninitialized.

NOTE: The data set WORK.WORK1 has 1 observations and 2 variables.

NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):

real time 0.00 seconds

cpu time 0.00 seconds

71

72 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

85

So,

What will be the answer comes? As my logic answer sholde be missing character value!

[art297 · Accepted solution]

You didn't include a set statement in your second datastep. e.g.

data work1;
input title $ 1-39;
datalines;
A TALE OF TWO CITIES, CHARLES J. DICKENS
run;

data work1;
  set work1;
WORD=SCAN(title,3,' ,');
run;

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

[Yavuz]

You must put ";" after every program line. Please
Put ";" sign after line below and try again :

title='A TALE OF TWO CITIES, CHARLES J. DICKENS';

[ballardw]

If the "test" code doesn't include any external file references I would suggest that you start first by running the code as provided in the test.

For the question code as posted all of the answers are wrong unless you consider an empty dataset as "missing character value" as the code will not run at all. You are missng a ; at the end of line two.

[Saidurga1]

　

data work1;

input title $ 1-55;

datalines;

A TALE OF TWO CITIES, CHARLES J. DICKENS

run;

　

data work1;

set work1;

WORD=SCAN(title,3,' ,');

run;