Date:         Tue, 2 May 2000 13:54:45 -0400
Reply-To:     Michael Bramley-M <bramley.m@PG.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Michael Bramley-M <bramley.m@PG.COM>
Subject:      Re: breaking up a 200 character field
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

SAS-L:

May I suggest that you re-think the limit of 4 character variables of 50 bytes
each, as I discovered quite quickly that under the above restraints, you will
more than likely end up breaking up the original string into bits < 50 bytes,
hence requiring one extra variable.

The following code performs the task at hand (breaks up on word boundaries, <=
50 bytes)
but may require verification on a larger dataset. I used this string, but a
sample size of
one has no real power.


HTH,

Michael


Data Temp ;
   Length Temp $51 A1-A5 $50  ;

   Array Chrs{5} A1-A5 ;

   X = "The following code performs the task at hand (breaks up on word
boundaries, <= 50 bytes)
 but may require verification on a larger dataset. I used this string, but a
sample size of
 one has no real power." ;


   Idx = 1 ;

   Do While(Length(X) > 50 ) ;
      /* find position of last space, before the end (50 bytes) */

      Temp = Reverse(SubStr(X,1,51)) ;
      J = Index(Temp, ' ') ;
      J = 50 - J + 1 ;

      /* stuff this extract into the character array */
      /* and continue with rest of original string */

      Chrs{Idx} = SubStr(X,1,J) ;
      X = SubStr(X,J+1) ;
      Idx + 1 ;
   End ;

   /* fall out of loop, so update array with last bit of text. */

   Chrs{Idx} = X ;
   Put A1= / A2= / A3= /A4= /A5=;
Run ;