Hello, I have a variable - full names, and I want to separate all names (last, middle, first). The variable is usually like Dan I Cooper. However some persons' names include a nick name and their names are like Johnson (John) E Allen. So I want to have a function to tell me which full names include a nickname within (). My solution is to use : If ANYPUNCT(fullname)>0 then nick_name=scan(fullname,2). But now I find out a new issue, some full names are like Jeff M O'Hagan. With an apostrophe, the anypunct(fullname) is also greater than 0. So is there a function I can just search parentheses within a string? Thank you! P.S. of course these names are not real names. Cliff ... View more

Hello, I have a data set and whenever I open it in the SAS explorer, the log shows ERROR: There was a problem with the format so BEST. was used. I figure out it is due to the format of one variable - meetingdate. The length is 8, Type is numeric Format is YYMMDDN8. Informat is MMDDYY10. so I try to change the format: data issue02; set issue01;          format meetingdate MMDDYY10.; run; but when I open the issue02, the same error still exists. and now for the meetingdate variable in data set issue2: The length is 8, Type is numeric Format is MMDDYY10. Informat is 10. Another data set in my computer with a date variable of the same attributes does not have such error. I google and try to use the code like: data issue02; set issue01;      informat   meetingdate    10.;     format   meetingdate     best10.;     length   meetingdate   8; run; Now there is no error, but some of the date variable become  17589.4167, which should be 20080227.                                              some are 17224, some are correctly as 20120321. When I drop the meetingdate variable in data set issue2, the error disappears. My SAS is 9.4 TS Level 1M2, W32_7PRO platform. My old computer has a 64-big operating system. Any suggestions? Thanks. ... View more