{"id":11287,"date":"2018-03-21T09:03:29","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T03:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/data-flair.training\/blogs\/?p=11287"},"modified":"2021-05-09T13:16:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-09T07:46:58","slug":"sas-string-functions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/data-flair.training\/blogs\/sas-string-functions\/","title":{"rendered":"SAS String Functions | SAS Character Functions – 7 Mins Tutorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, we will be learning about SAS strings and major SAS string functions with syntax and examples. We will also present you with an example representing a declaration of two string variables. The examples and syntaxes will help you to understand the string functions in SAS in a better way.<\/p>\n

What is String in SAS?<\/h2>\n

Strings\u00a0in SAS programming are the values that are enclosed within a pair of single quotes. String variables are declared by placing a $ sign at the end of the declaration of a variable. SAS has a vast repository of functions that can be applied to strings for analysis.<\/p>\n

Declaring String Variables<\/h2>\n

Below is an example that shows the declaration of two string variables string 1 and string 2. As you can see a dollar sign has been placed at the end to denote that the variable is of character type. The numbers, 5 and 6 at the end of the string denote the length of the string.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong><\/p>\n

data string_example;\r\nLENGTH string1 $ 6 String2 $ 5;\r\n\/*String variables of length 6 and 5 *\/\r\nString1 = 'Hello';\r\nString2 = 'World';<\/pre>\n
Output:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\"Declaring<\/a><\/p>\n
Two columns with variable names string 1 and string 2 were created of character type. Hello, and World is the data values in the form of string inside the dataset.<\/p>\n
SAS String Functions<\/h2>\n
SAS programming has a vast number of SAS string functions that can be applied to strings to make our analysis easier. Below we will be seeing some important and most frequently used SAS string functions.<\/p>\n
1. SAS COMPBL Function<\/h3>\n
SAS String Functions – COMPBL Function
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Purpose<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong> \u00a0Occurrences of two or more blanks is replaced with a single blank character. This is particularly useful for situations where names and addresses that have multiple blanks may have been entered.
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Syntax: <\/u><\/strong>\u00a0COMPBL (an expression that is to be compressed)
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Example<\/u>:<\/strong><\/p>\n
CHAR = \"A D \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0XYZ\"<\/pre>\n
The function COMPBL(CHAR) will give the output \u201cA D\u00a0 XYZ\u201d<\/p>\n
2. SAS STRIP Function<\/h3>\n
SAS String Functions – STRIP Function
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Purpose<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong> This function removes the leading and trailing spaces i.e spaces that occur before and after any character.
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Syntax: <\/u><\/strong>\u00a0STRIP( name of the character)
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Example<\/u>:<\/strong><\/p>\n
let CHAR = \"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 XYZ\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"<\/pre>\n
i. The function STRIP( CHAR) will give the output as \u201c XYZ\u201d<\/p>\n
ii. STRIP( \u201c LEADING AND TRAILING\u201d ) will give output as
\n\u201cLEADING AND TRAILING\u201d)<\/p>\n
3. SAS COMPRESS Function<\/h3>\n
SAS String Functions – COMPRESS Function
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Purpose<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong> This function removes some specified characters that we wish to remove from the string instead of removing blanks.
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Syntax: <\/u><\/strong>\u00a0COMPRESS( name of the string, \u2018 characters that we want to be removed\u2019)
\n<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
Example<\/u>:<\/strong><\/p>\n
let CHAR = \" AB\u00a0 C126734IJKXYZ789 \"<\/pre>\n
i. The function COMPRESS( CHAR, \u201c6789IJK\u201d) will give the output as \u201c AB\u00a0 C1234XYZ\u201d<\/p>\n
ii. COMPRESS( \u201cAB C126734IJKXYZ789\u201d ) will give output as \u201cABC126734IJKXYZ789\u201d<\/p>\n
4. SAS LEFT Function<\/h3>\n
SAS String Functions – STRIP Function
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Purpose<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong> This function aligns the text or the string to the left instead of removing leading blanks.
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Syntax: <\/u><\/strong>\u00a0LEFT( EXPRESSION)
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Example<\/u>:<\/strong><\/p>\n
let CHAR = \"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 XYZ\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"<\/pre>\n
i. The function LEFT( CHAR) will give the output as \u201cXYZ\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201d<\/p>\n
ii. LEFT( \u201c 678 \u201d ) will give output as \u201c678\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201d<\/p>\n
5. SAS TRIM Function<\/h3>\n
SAS String Functions – TRIM Function
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Purpose<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong> This function is used for removing trailing blanks exclusively. It becomes useful when we want to concatenate two strings and both have trailing spaces.
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Syntax: <\/u><\/strong>\u00a0TRIM( name of the string)
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Example<\/u>:<\/strong><\/p>\n
let \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0STRING1 = \"XYZ\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \" and STRING2 = \"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 abc\"<\/pre>\n
i. TRIM(STRING1) will trim trailing spaces and return “XYZ”.<\/p>\n
ii. TRIM(” “) will display result as ” ” (length = 1)<\/p>\n
iii. TRIM(STRING2) will return same string because there are no trailing spaces, only leading spaces ”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 abc”<\/p>\n
6. SAS \u201cCAT\u201d Functions<\/h3>\n
SAS String Functions – CAT Function\u00a0(CAT, CATS, CATT, and CATX)
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Purpose<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong> These functions are used to concatenate two strings (join them). The CAT function joins the two strings as it is, including spaces also.
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Syntax: <\/u><\/strong>\u00a0CAT( STRING1, STRING2, STRING3,\u2026.. STRINGN)
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Example<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0:<\/p>\n
let\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A = \"HELLO\" ,\u00a0 B = \"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 HOW\",\u00a0 C= \u201dYOU\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c , D= \u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c where A, B, C, D are character variables.<\/pre>\n
i. CAT(A, B) gives “HELLO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 HOW”<\/p>\n
ii. CAT(B, C, D) gives ” HOWYOU\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ”<\/p>\n
iii. CAT(“HEY “, C) will give “HEYYOU\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ”<\/p>\n
Note –<\/strong>
\ni. CATT –\u00a0<\/strong>strips only trailing spaces.
\nii. CATS –\u00a0<\/strong>strips both leading and trailing blanks, and does not insert separators.
\niii. CATX –\u00a0<\/strong>strips both leading and trailing blanks, and inserts separators. The first argument to\u00a0CATX\u00a0specifies the separator.<\/p>\n
\"SAS<\/a><\/p>\n
7. SAS SUBSTR Function<\/h3>\n
SAS String Functions – SUBSTR Function
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Purpose<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong> This function extracts a part of a string.
\n<\/u><\/p>\n
Syntax: <\/u><\/strong>\u00a0SUBSTR(string, start, length )<\/p>\n
A\u00a0Start is the starting position from where we want the string.
\nlength is the number of characters to include in the substring.<\/p>\n
If this argument omits, the SUBSTR function will return all the characters from the start position to the end of the string.<\/p>\n
Example:<\/strong><\/p>\n
let STRING = \"ABCXYZ\"<\/pre>\n
i. SUBSTR(STRING,4,2 ) will return “XY”<\/p>\n
ii. SUBSTR(STRING,4) will return\u00a0 “XYZ\u201d<\/p>\n
8. SAS LOWCASE, UPCASE, and PROPCASE<\/h3>\n
The SAS String Functions – LOWCASE, UPCASE, and PROPCASE\u00a0Function<\/p>\n