taking out dashes from ID

[desireatem]

Hello-.

I have ID variable as such;

How can I take out the dashes (-) in the ID?

             ID                Age

1	01-1-001	40
2	01-1-001	40
3	01-1-001	40
4	01-1-001	40
5	01-1-002	29
6	01-1-002	29
7	01-1-002	29

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

To get rid of them:

ID = compress(ID, '-');

If you want to change them to blanks instead, use the TRANSLATE function instead of COMPRESS.

ID = translate(ID, ' ', '-');

[desireatem]

Thanks you!

[Jagadishkatam]

Alternatively, you can also try the perl regular expression

data want;
input id$;
id=prxchange('s/-//i',-1,id);
cards;
01-1-001
;

[Andygray]

Hi @Jagadishkatam   Appreciate your enthusiasm, however for this case(OP's requirement) I don't think PRX is an alternative. It is awfully slow when I tested with 40 million records. However, I like your thinking. PRX is better utilized for complex patterns as opposed to straight forward use of SAS functions such as this case. 

Nonetheless, thank you for your contribution