SCAN and STR Function

[kcvaldez98]

I am trying to extract the lower bounds of a 95% CI from a character string and I am trying to extract the number while making it numeric.

The character string I am extracting from is "95% C.I.: 7.7 - 10.7" I am trying to just keep the 7.7 and make it numeric.

The code I put in is:

DATA WORK.CI;

SET OLD DATA;

countylowerCI = SUBSTR(SCAN(countyCI, 1, ':-'));

RUN;

What am I doing wrong?

[PaigeMiller]

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@kcvaldez98 wrote:

countylowerCI = SUBSTR(SCAN(countyCI, 1, ':-'));

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Does this help you figure it out?

data a;
    countyci="95% C.I.: 7.7 - 10.7";
    word1=scan(countyCI, 1, ':-');
    word2=scan(countyCI, 2, ':-');
    word3=scan(countyCI, 3, ':-');
run;

The above code does not return a numeric value, it returns a character string, but I'm guessing you make that change after you figure it out.

Why are you getting confidence intervals as text strings? All SAS procedures can get the actual numerical value as output, that's a much better way to go.

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

Use INPUT to convert a character variable to numeric, not sure what is the purpose of SUBSTR.

lowerCI = input(scan(countyCI, 2, ':-'), best12.);

Note that I would recommend running the scan function first to verify what it's returning for your text and then try the conversion.

[antonbcristina]

As suggested, do this in stages. First scan the character string, confirming you have the right number (as a character string), then convert it using the INPUT function. 

DATA CI;
	countyCI = "95% C.I.: 7.7 - 10.7";
	countylowerCI_char = SCAN(countyCI, 2, ':-');
	countylowerCI_num  = input(countylowerCI_char,best10.);
RUN;