What does that have to do with anything? _infile_ magic works on any number of records. You're not inputting from the datalines, you're just cheating and pretending you have datalines.

Example:

data have; array s $ s1-s10; do _x = 1 to 50000; do _t = 1 to dim(s); s[_t] = byte(floor(ranuni(7)*26)+65); if ranuni(7) < 0.5 then s[_t]='|'; end; str = compress(catx('*',of s1-s10),'|'); output; end; keep str; run;

data want; set have; infile cards dlm='*' truncover dsd; input @; _infile_ = str; input @1 (s1-s10) (:$8.) @@; cards;

;;;; run;

-Joe

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 7:20 PM, Ben <benpub7@yahoo.com> wrote: > Thanks, but it seems not practical. there are thousands of records. the STR > can be totally different. At another position, it can be STR="aa**cc***" etc. > > Thanks for your quick response. > > Ben > > > On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 18:31:34 -0500, Data _null_; <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM> wrote: > >>Infile Magic? >> >>166 data _null_; >>167 STR="aa*bb**dd*ee****ii"; >>168 infile cards dsd dlm='*' missover; >>169 input @; >>170 _infile_ = str; >>171 input @1 (s1-s10)(:$8.); >>172 put (S:)(=); >>173 cards; >> >>STR=aa*bb**dd*ee****ii s1=aa s2=bb s3= s4=dd s5=ee s6= s7= s8= s9=ii s10= >> >> >>On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 6:21 PM, Ben <benpub7@yahoo.com> wrote: >>> forgot to tell you, I am still using SAS9.1.3. Thank you for your kindly >>> response. >>> >>> ben >>> >>> On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 16:27:49 -0500, Data _null_; <iebupdte@GMAIL.COM> wrote: >>> >>>>SCAN with M modifier, >>>> >>>>Click that little icon that looks like a book with a ? on it. :-) >>>> >>>>On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 4:19 PM, Ben <benpub7@yahoo.com> wrote: >>>>> data _null_; >>>>> STR='aa*bb**dd*ee****ii"; >>>>> >>>>> put s1= s2= s3= s4= s5= s6= s7= s8= s9= s10=; >>>>> run; >>>>> >>>>> *the desired results; >>>>> >>>>> s1='aa' s2='bb' s3='' s4='dd' s5='ee' s6='' s7='' s8='' s9='' s10='ii' >>>>> >>>>> **instead of; >>>>> s1='aa' s2='bb' s3='dd' s4='ee' s5='ii' >>>>> >>>>> Thanks >>>>> >>>>> ben >>>>> >>> >