scan function

[sanyam13]

Data work;

author = 'agatha christie' ;

first = substr(scan(author,1, ' , ' ),1,1);

run;

i find this question in a mock test,  question is what would be the length of the variable first in output data set  , Answer given in mock test for this is 200  but when i run this program in sas i got 15 as length for the variable first . can you help me out in this case though i know length of scan function is 200 . 

[ybolduc · Accepted solution]

Hi Sanyam,

     From what I remember, if the destination variable does not have a specified length, SAS will set it to the length of the source.

     Small test:

data toto;
  length a $200.;
  a = 'Hello World!';
  b = 'Hello World!';
  c = scan(a, 1, ' ');
  d = scan(b, 1, ' ');
run;

     c has length 200 and d has length 15.

     I hope that helps.

     I assume in the question the was something indicating the length of author.

Thanks.