@Buzzy_Bee wrote:
Thank you, Balladw. That is indeed how I would have written that line of code (I use the new CAT() functions, such as the CATX() function that you suggested). Originally at university I was taught the pipe symbol (|) that you mentioned, prior to the introduction of the CAT() functions in SAS, but the exclamation is certainly the rarer symbol that I don't often see.
I read once that it is considered to be an outdated SAS programming style to still use symbols instead of the CAT() functions. Does anyone have an opinion on that? I think SAS courses these days only teach the CAT() functions now from what I've seen.
SAS supports a lot of their "old" coding so production jobs don't break. Try to find "Do over" in the documentation for example for use with arrays. Still works.
Because of the almost universal need for Strip() with || to get expected results I suspect that is major reason for teaching the CAT functions.
Of course Strip, to me, is a "new" function having learned Trim(left(variable)) before it was introduced.
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