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Hi Roger,
I am aware of both issues. In a tangential way this provides continuity to
the thread that Paul Choate started recently ( Re: Null Characters - was DO
Loop Behavior with Increment of Zero). If you hadn't followed that, see in
particular
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0404a&L=sas-l&F=&S=&P=8470
I find this as further confirmation of the data step developer's dislike
for null strings.
Regards,
Venky
On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 14:25:01 -0400, Lustig, Roger
<roger.lustig@CITIGROUP.COM> wrote:
>Venky:
>Right you are! SAS character strings always have a LENGTH of 1 or more,
even when blank.
>
>Not so for macro variables, by the way. %length(&some_variable) can
return a 0.
>
>Roger
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf Of
>Venky Chakravarthy
>Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 2:15 PM
>To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Adding character to string
>
>
>I prefer Roger's approach because it is the simplest. Predefining the
>string to be 10 characters long ensures that the string will run out of
>space in accommodating zeroes beyond the 10th character. However, I have
>noticed one quirk with this approach. It needs a COMPRESS to make it work
>when there is a null value. Somehow merely TRIMming the value fiercely
>protects the first field and only appends 9 zeroes for the null value.
>Uncomment and comment out the other instring manipulation alternatively to
>see what I mean and count the number of zeroes for obs #4 in both.
>
>data q ;
> length instring $10 ;
> input instring $ ;
> *instring = compress(trim(instring))||"00000000000" ;
> instring = trim(instring)||"00000000000" ;
> put "Obs #" _n_ INSTRING= ;
> cards ;
>0123456789
>12
>01234
>.
>112
>9
>run ;
>
>Kind Regards,
>
>Venky
>
>
>On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 11:01:48 -0400, Lustig, Roger
><roger.lustig@CITIGROUP.COM> wrote:
>
>>Nick:
>>The LENGTH() function tells you where the last non-blank is. The TRIM()
>function returns the string without its trailing blanks. Therefore:
>>
>>data new;
>>length mystring $10; *<---- Put this here to modify a pre-existing
>variable;
>>set old;
>>mystring=trim(mystring)||'0000000000';
>>run;
>>
>>Roger
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf Of Nick
>>I
>>Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 10:55 AM
>>To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: Adding character to string
>>
>>
>>Hello,
>>
>>I have a string 9 digits long like 000110100 but this field must be 10
>digits long. I would like to make it 10 digits long by adding a 0 at the
>end like 000110100
>>
>>How can I do this by first making sure the filed is 10 digits long, in
>which case do nothing, but if it is short by 1 then add 0 at the end. (It
>would be nice if program works for general case like for example: Say one
>record is 4 digits long. Then I must add 6 0s at the end. So if it is like
>0110 then it must look like 0110000000.)
>>Thanks kindly
>>Nick
>>--
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