Date:         Thu, 12 Feb 2004 16:20:36 -0500
Reply-To:     Howard Schreier <Howard_Schreier@ITA.DOC.GOV>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Howard Schreier <Howard_Schreier@ITA.DOC.GOV>
Subject:      Re: Parsing Variable Length File
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Try this:

   data _null_;
   input @'LN' howlong 2. lastname    $varying. howlong
         @'MN' howlong 2. materalname $varying. howlong ;
   put lastname= materalname=;
   cards;
   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXUSYYYYYYYYYY12LN04FAIRMN07SHANNON......
   ;

Result:

   lastname=FAIR materalname=SHANNON

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 13:05:32 -0500, Shannon Fair <s.fair@CRIFGROUP.COM>
wrote:

>I am trying to read a variable length flat file with both fixed and
>variable length segments.  Reading each variable length segment requires
>searching for and finding each field’s tag and length in order to identify
>the value in those fields.  For example, to begin reading the first
>segment, I have to find a 2-byte tag (LN) of the first field (Last Name) in
>that segment.  Immediately following this tag is the 2-byte length of the
>Last Name field.  Since this field contains a name of eight bytes, the
>record would read LN08 followed by an 8-byte character: LN08FRANKLIN.  Here
>is a short example of the first part of one record:
>
>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXUSYYYYYYYYYY12LN04FAIRMN07SHANNON......
>
>data test (DROP=LENGTHPN LENGTHMN);
> infile 'e:\above file.txt' missover;
> input         User_ref $15.
>   Cntry_cd $2.
>   Memb_cd  $10.
>   Prim_cd  1.
>   Sec_cd  1.
>   /*Name Segment*/
>   PN  $2.
>   lengthPN 2. @;
>   call symput ('format',lengthPN); /* I know this
>doesn't work, but I would like it to*/
> input          Paternal_Name $&format..
>   MN     $2.
>   lengthMN  2. @;
>   call symput ('format',lengthMN); /* I know this
>doesn't work, but I would like it to*/
> input          Maternal_Name $&format..
>;
>run;
>
>I cannot figure out a way to resolve the macro 'format' variable & I have
>tons of segments to parse plus a large amount of records - therefore, I
>only want to make one pass through the data.
>
>Any suggestions???
>
>Thanks!