Useful String Functions: strip, scanq, substrn
strip(string) - Removes leading and trailing blanks in one go. This is the same as left(trim(string)) that you would use in V8.
scanQ(string,position) – The scanq function allows the returning of separated words within a string like the scan function e.g. scan(‘Andy Bowden’,-1) = ‘Bowden’. The scanq function however allows you to ignore separators enclosed in quotation marks.
data _null_;
return=scanq("Andy'-'Bowden'-'Amadeus-Software Ltd",2,'-');
put return=;
run;
Running this produces the following in the log:
5 data _null_;
6 return=scanq("Andy'-'Bowden'-'Amadeus-Software Ltd",2,'-');
7 put return=;
8 run;
return=Software Ltd
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.10 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds
substrn() – One of the annoying things with the substr function is the note you get in the log when the function returns a blank value.
data _null_;
return=substr("Andy Bowden",20,2);
run;
will produce the following in the log:
9 data _null_;
10 return=substr("Andy Bowden",20,2);
11 run;
NOTE: Invalid second argument to function SUBSTR at line 10
column 12.
return= _ERROR_=1 _N_=1
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds
A way around this is to use the substrn function, which allows the returning of missing values.
data _null_;
return_2nd=substrn("Andy Bowden",20,2);
run;
Using substrn will produce the following in the log:
data _null_;
return_2nd=substrn("Andy Bowden",20,2);
run;
