Adam <worldtraveller999@GMAIL.COM> wrote: > I have a name and address file in which the address field contains > embeded carriage returns using the infile statement results in a > dataset with multiple data records > > addr > addr > addr > > I want to replace the carriage return with a space to generate one > address field per name can anyone suggest a solution.

The following rambling assumes that you're working on a Win32 box. If not, then you need to correct me.

Are these 'carriage returns' or 'hard returns'? I mean, when you look at the file in a hex editor, are these a single character, or the two-character hard return '0D0A'x that MS-DOS uses to end lines of text files? If they are only the '0D'x or '0A'x character, then it will be a lot easier to yank them out programatically. If they're the standard two-character hard return, then you'll have to come up with a system by which a computer can tell when you're at the end of a line and when you're in the middle of an address. That depends on the structure of your data, which I can't quite make out from way over here. :-)

Can you write back to SAS-L (not to me personally) and give us some guidance? Please tell us: what OS you're using; what software created the file and why it can't be fixed before coming to you; how your data look; what the hex codes for your breaks are; and how you can tell when the newline is supposed to be there.

Awaiting your reply, David -- David Cassell, CSC Cassell.David@epa.gov Senior computing specialist mathematical statistician