separated correctly by a single commas & then a single space

[kalbo]

Hi all I need to write code that checks that a variable names are separated correctly by a single commas & then a single space for example "DOMAIN, LBNAM, LBDAT".

So, for example, incorrect values I want to detect are:

DOMAIN , LBNAM, LBDAT

DOMAIN;LBNAM;LBDAT

DOMAIN,,LBNAM, LBDAT

DOMAIN LBNAM LBDAT

Thanks for your help

[ErikLund_Jensen]

Hi @kalbo 

Try this. 

data a;
	s = 'DOMAIN , LBNAM, LBDAT'; output;
	s = 'DOMAIN;LBNAM;LBDAT'; output;
	s = 'DOMAIN,,LBNAM, LBDAT'; output;
	s = 'DOMAIN LBNAM LBDAT'; output;
run;
data b; set a;
	s2 = prxchange('s/(\w*)(\W*)(\w+)/$1, $3/',-1,trim(s));
run;

[kalbo]

Hey thanks for your reply.

I tested the code and it fixes the issues. However, I wanted to detect when the issues occurred, rather than fix them. Would you be able to modify your code to do this?

thanks again.

[ErikLund_Jensen · Accepted solution]

Hi @kalbo 

Just check if the string is changed, i.e. s not equal to s2. The following code only outputs incorrect strings, but the comparison result could be assigned to an Error variable instead. 

data a;
	s = 'DOMAIN , LBNAM, LBDAT'; output;
	s = 'DOMAIN;LBNAM;LBDAT'; output;
	s = 'DOMAIN,,LBNAM, LBDAT'; output;
	s = 'DOMAIN LBNAM LBDAT'; output;
	s = 'DOMAIN, LBNAM, LBDAT'; output;
run;
data b (drop=s2); set a;
	s2 = prxchange('s/(\w*)(\W*)(\w+)/$1, $3/',-1,trim(s));
	if s ne s2 then output;
run;

[kalbo]

ok great! thanks!