Date:         Thu, 14 May 2009 16:23:32 -0500
Reply-To:     "Data _null_;" <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Data _null_;" <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Smart truncation of char strings
Comments: To: Toby Dunn <tobydunn@hotmail.com>
In-Reply-To:  <200905142107.n4EJXPQh030686@malibu.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On 5/14/09, Toby Dunn <tobydunn@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Knowning ones data is going to be key to any solution for this problem.
Do we know what the SOP says.  Best I could tell is, "Stick a time
stamp at the end of the path before the extension."
> This is especially true when you start down the RegEx path.
What does that mean?
> That being said I can punch holes with what ifs regardless of which way you go.
Yes, of course, but a number in the file name thats not a part of the
time stamp seems reasonable, what if.

> The only safe way I can figure is to undo the renaming scheme from the SOP and
> then match back to the other list of filenames.
But, we already have the "undone" scheme.  They are the current filenames.

A simple FIND function should suffice.

I'm not trying to knock your nice regex.  I just think using that
approch is backwards.