This is a first step to a long process. As you said, my intent is to get the cases where at least one word from the keylist appeared under the variables for each observation.    The data is quite complex which is why it has been difficult to provide a concise example. I am looking at a total of 12 variables that each contain string variables (in the example they are vars1-7). The process in my original syntax was to find the words from the keylist and see if they are present in the responses for each observation. The word needs to match exactly as written in the keylist. Not every case will have a the keywords, and therefore will not be cases. ... View more

Do you know if there's a way to run that without having to write everything out? The keylist has about 200 words, and the variables have around 50k observations with a different response on each.   Thank you! I really appreciate all the input that's been provided. ... View more

Due to the sensitivity of this data I cannot provide further info. Instead, I will provide an example to better explain my question. Lets say I have an Excel spreadsheet with a list of fake flowers   Flowers: 1. Orchids 2. Lilies 3. Roses 4. 1,4,5-Daisy 5. Dahlia 6. 3,4-Lilac(2-Lilies)Daisy 7. Common lilac 8. False goats beard   Say these flowers were placed into &alldrugs. Now in my data I have an observation with the following report under var1: "The house was surrounded with various objects. Some objects being boxes, shoes, and roses."   I want sas to read through that statement and see if the keywords from &alldrugs are mentioned in that statement. If not then to say "No".    My syntax was originally this, but it takes too long to run and I would like it to be more efficient by using the syntax I provided in the original question. drug=1; i=1; do while ((scan("&alldrugs",i,"|") ne '') and drug>0); i+1; /*Number of the drug found on the keyword list -1 */ drug_word=scan("&alldrugs",i-1,"|"); indx_drug1=findw(lowcase(var1),compress(lowcase(drug_word))); indx_drug2=findw(lowcase(var2),compress(lowcase(drug_word))); indx_drug3=findw(lowcase(var3),compress(lowcase(drug_word))); indx_drug4=findw(lowcase(var4),compress(lowcase(drug_word))); indx_drug5=findw(lowcase(var5),compress(lowcase(drugd_word))); indx_drug6=findw(lowcase(var6),compress(lowcase(drug_word))); indx_drug7=findw(lowcase(var7),compress(lowcase(drug_word))); if indx_drug1>0 or indx_drug2>0 or .... indx_drug7>0 then drug=1; else drug=drug+1; ... View more

I tried changing that to make both lower case using the two following forms, but both don't seem to work. data test; set data; if findw(lowcase(var1),lowcase("&alldrugs"),' ', 'I S') >0 then drug= 'Yes'; else drug='No'; run; data test; set data; if findw(lowcase(var1),compress(lowcase("&alldrugs")),' ', 'I S') >0 then drug= 'Yes'; else drug='No'; run; Thank you! ... View more

Good point! I forgot to add those in. It removes the error message, but I still end up with no observations for drug='Yes' when there should be.   In terms of the &alldrugs variable, it was created with the following syntax:   proc sql; select drug_name into: alldrugs separated by ' ' from druglist; quit; %put &alldrugs;   and gave the drugs output into a table. Below are 4 of the drugs listed from the top. 1-(3-CHLOROPHENYL)PIPERAZINE 1-(5-METHOXY-1H-INDOL-3-YL)-2-PROPANAMINE 10-HYDROXYCARBAZEPINE 10-OH CARBAZEPINE   I also should mention, some of the drugs have comma's so they are written as 1,3-dimethoxy. Which is why I have the data as pipe delimited.   Thanks for the help! ... View more

Sorry, that's a mistake in the example. In the original code there isn't an or at the end. I've corrected the question. ... View more