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List:       sas-l
Subject:    Re: How to delete (replace) specific characters in an irregular
From:       "Dunn, Toby" <Toby.Dunn () TEA ! STATE ! TX ! US>
Date:       2004-11-30 20:11:35
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Ahhh yes but tranwrd runs faster.

Toby

-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Laurie Fleming
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 1:50 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: How to delete (replace) specific characters in an irregular
string


In article <200411301642.iAUGggSY014677@listserv.cc.uga.edu>,
 xt_zhong@YAHOO.COM (Shelton Zhong) wrote:

> suppose
>
> data t1;
> x='ab, 6, c, def';
> y='h, i, jk';
> run;
>
> Is there a simple way to knock out the ','s in x and y , that is to
> replace ',' with 0 length empty place.  As you see, x and y have
> irregular patterns.  The SUBSTR(Left of =) function needs specific
> character positions, and the approach using INDEX() and SCAN()
> fucntions seems to be too complicated.  Thanks!

It couldn't be easier, Shelton. Have a look at this:

1    data t1;
2    x='ab, 6, c, def';
3    y='h, i, jk';
4    new_x = compress(x, ',');
5    new_y = compress(y, ',');
6    put new_x= new_y=;
7    run;

new_x=ab 6 c def new_y=h i jk

The compress function by default removes spaces; when you provide a
second parameter, all the characters in the second parameter are
removed. In version 9 there is a third parameter, modifier, which
provides extra functionality.

If you wanted to keep the places where the commas were, the translate
function would be best: new_x = translate(x, ' ', ',');

Note that the parameters are: variable, to, from - not the more logical
variable, from, to.

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