Depending on the different formats and how long the list is you'll probably have to full around with this a little to get it right, but it's a good start and works with the current example:   data have; infile cards dsd dlm='***'; informat fullname $35.; format fullname $35.; input Fullname; cards; H FULLER WILLIAM D SMITHBURG BOONE POWELL JR. W. JAMES FARRELL SAMUEL C. SCOTT III DAVID A. L. OWEN, C.H., F.R.C.P. R. S. AUSTIN JAMES PACE Ann McLaughlin Korologos SUSAN CLARK-JOHNSON ;run; data want(keep=fullname first_name last_name); set have; First_Name=scan(fullname,1,' '); Last_Name=scan(fullname,2,' '); if length(last_name) < 3 then Last_Name = scan(fullname,3,' '); if length(last_name) < 3 then Last_Name = scan(fullname,4,' '); if length(scan(fullname,3,' ')) > 3 then last_name = scan(fullname,3,' '); run; ... View more

Here is a solution:   data have; informat id $1. linker $6. date date9.; format id $1. linker $6. date date9.; input ID$        linker$             date; cards; A         aaa000         30Jan2014 A         aaa000         28Feb2014 A         aaa000         29Mar2014 A         aab000         26Apr2014 A         aab000         31May2014 A         aab000         14Oct2014 A         aac000         09Jul2014 A         aac000         09Aug2014 A         aac000         15Nov2014 A         aad000         10Sep2014 ;run; data want; set have; by id linker; Diff = (date-1) - (lag(date)+1); if first.linker then diff=0; if first.linker or diff>62 then flag+1; run; ... View more