Date:         Sat, 31 May 1997 12:21:03 EDT
Reply-To:     Philip Tejera <FXTBB@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Philip Tejera <FXTBB@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Finding minimum value of a string

Assuming that the examples imply that we are looking for a single digit
and ignoring what to do about zero, the indexc function seems ideal for
the job, as follows. I make use of the fact that we know the order of the
digits, so that the position of 1 in chk is also 1.
 
11 The SAS System                                    12:17 Saturday, May 31, 199
 
 1          data _null_;
 2              chk = '123456789';
 3              p1 = indexc(chk,'72541');
 4              p2 = indexc(chk,'6458');
 5          put p1= p2= ;
 6          run;
 
 P1=1 P2=4