Søren,

Of course that could be further complicated depending upon the setting you have for the cardimage system option. See, e.g.:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/64316/HTML/default/viewer .htm#a000201795.htm

or, in short form: http://tiny.cc/uft5v

Art -------- On Tue, 8 Feb 2011 01:47:33 -0500, S=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=C3=B8ren?= Lassen <s.lassen@POST.TELE.DK> wrote:

>Ann, >Assuming that the U=flower in then second dataline should have been >OU=flower. > >Named input is definitely the way to go. Only problem is the period >before the <name>=, where SAS expects a blank (BTW, is it really a period, >and not some other unprntable character, which got translated to a period >when you posted here?): > >So, we have to manipulate the line read first, so that SAS can recognize >the names: > >data test; > if _N_=1 then > prxid=prxparse('s/\.([A-Z]+=)/ $1/'); > retain prxid; > drop prxid; > input @; > call prxchange(prxid,-1,substr(_INFILE_,1)); > length record $4 type $6 serial CN OU O U $40; > input record type serial cn= ou= o= u=; >cards; >0001 apple1 00.25.Monkey@address.com.CN=I'll be a monkeys uncle.OU=Mocking >Bird City.O=some other data.U=some other data . . . >0001 apple6 00679D46CKJL.CN=Help - I need someone.OU=flower.O=some other >data.U=some other data . . . >0001 apple6 00679D46CKJL.CN=Help - I need someone.OU=flower.U=some other >data. >0001 apple6 00679D46CKJL.CN=Help - I need someone.OU=flower.O=some other >data. >;run; > >What the string in PRXPARSE does: "s" means substitution. >"/" is a delimiter. "\." means a period (special character, escaped with >"\", if the "period" is not a period, but e.g. hex(0A) you can change the >"\." to a hexidecimal digit: "\x0A"). The paranthesis means "remember this" >(create capture buffer). "[A-Z]" means uppercase character, "+" means one >or more of aforementioned, "=" means "=". "/" is a delimiter, meaning >here comes the string to substitute - which is very simply a blank >followed by whatever was remembered (capture buffer no. 1, a name followed >by "="). "/" is a delimiter, end of replacement string. > >I found a strange bug in SAS (9.1 on Windows), namely that PRXCHANGE >truncates the _infile_ variable to 80 characters - even more strangely, >that can be circumvented by using "substr(_INFILE_,1)" instead. If you >are reading from an actual file (and not a cards statement) you will >probably not be affected by this, and can just write > call prxchange(prxid,-1,_infile_); > >Regards, >Søren > >On Thu, 3 Feb 2011 15:31:01 -0500, Ann Mackey <thearchies@LIVE.COM> wrote: > >>I've and have tried many, MANY, things, but I'm just not getting it - >>Neurons just aren't firing too bright today. >> >>Here's a sample of the data - all on one line, the third chunk is over 200 >>characters - notice the many types of delimiters, spaces, ., =, '.CN=', >>etc., and every variable can be a different length: >> >>1 6 13 >>0001 apple1 00.25.Monkey@address.com.CN=I'll be a monkeys uncle.OU=Mocking >>Bird City.O=some other data.U=some other data . . . >>0001 apple6 00679D46CKJL.CN=Help - I need someone.U=flower.O=some other >>data.U=some other data . . . >> >>I want to get all 0001 records, keeping the type (apple1), and then parse >>out the first three sections of the last looong variable length field, in >>this case it would be: >> >>Record Type Serial CN OU >>0001 apple1 00.25.Monkey@address.com I'll be a monkeys uncle Mocking >>Bird City >>0001 apple6 00679D46CKJL Help - I need someone flower >> >>I've attempted this with scan, prxparse, indexw substr, DLM=, etc. >> >>Any direction/help is greatly appreciated, and dare I say... eagerly >>anticipated!! >>Thanks, >>Ann