which function is the best to locate that data: scan, index, or indexc

[anjita]

When looking for data contained in a character string of 150 bytes, which function is the best to locate that data: scan, index, or indexc?

[RW9]

Thats a bit like saying, when looking for something to eat in the fruit basket what is better apple, orange or pear.

There is no context, provided samples or any information at all which would indicate one way or another which is better.

Each of the given functions have their uses as defined in the SAS documentation, refer to that in context which your actual problem.

[andreas_lds]

Like @RW9  already said: your question can't be answered without knowing the context. The three functions you listed have very different use cases.

[ballardw]

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@anjita wrote:

When looking for data contained in a character string of 150 bytes, which function is the best to locate that data: scan, index, or indexc?

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And why exclude indexw, find, findw or the PRX functions? And sometimes even compress may work. It really depends on what the specific case is.

What type of data? Are "word" boundaries to be honored or not? Doe the desired data contain one or more word boundaries or delimiters? Do you need find more than the first occurrence of something? Do you need to use something other than a space as a word boundary?

Answering those questions and you may get hints towards which may be best for a specific use.

[sandeep12]

Index function – Searches a character expression for a string of characters 

SAS Statements	Results
a=’ABC.DEF (X=Y)’; b=’X=Y’; x=index(a,b); put x;	10