Arthur,

Yes, you can use: var1 = COMPRESS(var1,,"p")

Art ------- On Wed, 5 Oct 2005 13:25:59 -0700, Arthur Westover <anwestover@SBCGLOBAL.NET> wrote:

>I think this is an easy one. How do I strip out >periods from a character string variable. > >In other words I want something like 'V54.32' to >change to 'V5432' > >I think I use the compress function. Like this: >http://support.sas.com/ctx/samples/index.jsp?sid=823 > >COMPRESS(var1,,"p") > >Is this correct? > >Also, to reset all these variables, can I say > >var1 = COMPRESS(var1,,"p") > >Or do I have to make a new variable and say: > >var2 = COMPRESS(var1,,"p") > >Lastly, how can I search through my datalines and find >out if there are any periods. So that I get a number >returned, out of 5000 observations, x number had >periods? > >Thanks, >Arthur