SAS Functions

5/21/2018 SAS Functions

1/40GSK Knowledge Centre @ 2011

Overview

This presentation will cover the syntax for invoking some of thefunctions, an overview of the functions available, examples ofcommonly used functions.

Helps to understand some of the basic & frequently used SAS

functions.

To write the new SAS Programs or to understand the existing SAScodes.

To make changes to the available SAS code in order to get thedesired output.



Table of Contents

DefinitionFunctions Classification

Arithmetic Functions:Abs ,Hbound , Lbound , Dim, Mod, Sign

Character Functions: Lowcase , Upcase & Propcase, Compress & Compbl,Find & Findc, Index, Indexw, Indexc, Substr,CAT,CATT & CALL CATT,CATX & CALL CATX,CATS &

CALL CATS, Scan,Translate , Transwrd , Length,Count & Countc

Date & Time Functions: Date, Datejul, Datepart, Datetime, Day, INTCK,INTNX, Today, Mdy, Month, Quarter, Weekday,Year.



FUNCTION

Function returns a value from a computation or system manipulationthat requires zero or more arguments. And, like most programminglanguages, the SAS System provides an extensive library of built-infunctions. SAS has more than 200 functions for a variety ofprogramming tasks.

Broadly Functions can be classified under following heads:

Arithmetic ,Character, Date and Time , Financial, Mathematical ,

Probability , Quantile , Random Number, Sample Statistic,

State & ZIP Code, Trigonometric and Hyperbolic, Truncation

We will cover some of frequently used functions such as

arithmetic, character and Date.



Arithmetic Functions

Function Name Description Syntax &

Example

Output

ABS Returs absolutevalue

Abs(argument)eg: abs(-100)

100

Hbound Returns upperbound of an array

HBOUND(array-name)

Eg: array big{5}weight sex heightstate city; do i=1to hbound(big5);

5

Lbound Returns Lower

bound of an array

LBOUND(arra

y-name)Eg:array big{2:6}weight sex heightstate city; doi=lbound(big) tohbound(big);

2




Function Name Description Syntax &Example

Output

MOD Returns theremainder fromthe division of thefirst argument bythe secondargument,

MOD (argument-1, argument-2)

x1=mod(10,3);

X1=1.0000

SIGN Returns the signof a value.Sign functionreturns followingvalues0 then 1

SIGN(argument)

x=sign(-5);

x=sign(5);x=sign(0);

X=-1X=1X=0




DIM: Returns the number of elements in an array.Syntax: DIM(array-name)

n specifies the dimension, in a multidimensional array, for whichyou want to know the number of elements. If no n value isspecified, the DIM function returns the number of elements in the

first dimension of the array. array-name specifies the name of an array that was previously

defined in the same DATA step. This argument cannot be aconstant, variable, or expression.

Example :

DIM returns a value of 5. Therefore, SAS repeats the statements inthe DO loop five times.

array big{5} weight sex height state city; do i=1 to dim(big);



Character Functions

Functions That Change the Case of Characters:Name Purpose Syntax Example Output

Lowcase To change all letters tolower case.

Lowcase(Character_vale)

Status=CLowcase(Status)

c

Upcase To change all letters toupper case.

Upcase(Character_vale)

Detprod=seretideUpcase(detprod)

SERETIDE

Propcase To change all letters toproper case. Propcase(Character_vale) surname=DAVIDPropcase(surname)

David



Character Functions

Functions That Remove Characters from Strings

Name Purpose Syntax Example Output

Compbl Compbl (compress

blanks) can replacemultiple blanks with asingle blank.

Compbl(Character_valu

e)

Rep_name = D

LevisCompbl(Rep_name)

D Levis

Compress To remove specified

characters from acharacter value.

Compress(character-

value )

Product=Travel_

Health_VaccinesCompress(Product,_")

TravelHealthVaccines



Character Functions

FIND :To locate a substring within a string. With optional arguments,you can define the starting point for the search, the direction of thesearch, and ignore case or trailing blanks.

Syntax: FIND(character-value, find-string )

Examples:

Rep_name = John Davidson

Surname =John

Function OutputFIND(Rep_name , Surname ) 1

FIND("abcxyzabc","abc",4) 7



Character Functions

FINDC: To locate a character that appears or does not appear within astring. With optional arguments, you can define the starting point for thesearch, the direction of the search, to ignore case or trailing blanks, or tolook for characters except the ones listed.

Syntax: FINDC(character-value, find-characters )

Examples

STRING1 = "Apples and Books

STRING2 = "abcde

Function Output

FINDC(STRING1, STRING2) 5

FINDC(STRING1, STRING2, 'i') 1

FINDC(STRING1,"aple",'vi') 6



Character Functions

INDEXC: To search a character string for one or more characters.

Syntax:INDEXC(character-value, 'char1','char2','char3,...)

Note:The INDEXC function returns the first occurrence of any of thechar1 ,char2, etc., values in the string. If none of the characters is

found, the function returns a 0.Examples

Org_name = Singh & Singh Pharmacy

Function Output

INDEXC(Org_name ,P',a',n') 3 (position of the n")INDEXC(Org_name , &') 7 (position of the &")

INDEXC(Org_name ,Sin') 3 (position of the n")

Note: It makes no difference if you list the search characters as 'ABC' or

'A','B','C'.



Character Functions

INDEXW: To search a string for a word, defined as a group of lettersseparated on bothends by a word boundary (a space, the beginningof a string, end of the string).

Note:that punctuation is not considered a word boundary.

Syntax: INDEXW(character-value, find-string)

Examples

Org_name = Singh & Singh Pharmacy

Function OutputINDEXW(Org_name,Singh") 1 (the word Singh")

INDEXW(Org_name,mac") 0 (not a word)

INDEXW("ABABAB","AB") 0 (no word boundaries around "AB")



Character Functions

SUBSTR : To extract part of a string. When the SUBSTR function isused on the left side of the equal sign, it can place specifiedcharacters into an existing string

Syntax: SUBSTR(character-value, start )

Character - value is any SAS character expression.Start - is the starting position within the string.

Length - if specified, is the number of characters to include in the

substring. If this argument is omitted, the SUBSTR function will return all

the characters from the start position to the end of the string.If a length has not been previously assigned, the length of the resulting

variable will be the length of the character-value.



Character Functions

Examples:STRING = "ABC123XYZ

Function Output

SUBSTR(STRING,4,2) "12

SUBSTR(STRING,4) "123XYZ

SUBSTR(STRING,LENGTH(STRING)) "Z" (last character in thestring)



Character Functions

CALL CATS: To concatenate two or more strings, removing both

leading and trailing blanks before the concatenation takes place. Tohelp you remember that this call routine is the one that strips theleading and trailing blanks before concatenation, think of the S at theend of CATS as "strip blanks.

Syntax: CALL CATS(result, string-1 )result is the concatenated string. It can be a new variable or, if it is an

existing variable, the other strings will be added to it. Be sure that the

length of result is long enough to hold the concatenated results. If not,

the resulting string will be truncated, and you will see an error message

in the log.

string-1 and string-n are the character strings to be concatenated.

Leading and trailing blanks will be stripped prior to the concatenation.



Character Functions

CALL CATT:To concatenate two or more strings, removing only

trailing blanks before the concatenation takes place. To help youremember this, think of the T at the end of CATT as "trailing blanks" or"trim blanks.

Syntax: CALL CATT(result, string-1 )

result is the concatenated string. It can be a new variable or, if it is an

existing variable, the other strings will be added to it. Be sure that

the length of result is long enough to hold the concatenated

results. If not, the program will terminate and you will see an error

message in the log. string-1 and string-n are the character strings to be concatenated.

Trailing blanks will be stripped prior to the concatenation.



Character Functions

CALL CATX:To concatenate two or more strings, removing both

leading and trailing blanks before the concatenation takes place, andplace a single space, or one or more characters of your choice,between each of the strings. To help you remember this, think of the Xat the end of CATX as "add extra blank.

Syntax: CALL CATX(separator, result, string-1 )separator is one or more characters, placed in single or double

quotation marks, that you want to use to separate the strings

result is the concatenated string. It can be a new variable or, if it is an

existing variable, the other strings will be added to it. Be sure that the

length of result is long enough to hold the concatenated results. If

not,the program will terminate and you will see an error message in the

log. single blank will be placed between the strings.



Character Functions

Function Output

CALL CATS(RESULT, Code,Year)CALL CATS(RESULT , Product,Code,Year)CALL CATS(RESULT, Previous,code)

MAT2012SeretideMAT2012PreviousMAT"

CALL CATT(RESULT, Code,Year)CALL CATT(RESULT , Product,Code,Year)

CALL CATT(RESULT, Product,yrmo)

MAT2012 SeretideMAT2012Seretide 201201

CALL CATX(_ ", RESULT, Code,Year)

CALL CATX(_", RESULT, Product,yrmo)

CALL CATS( ,RESULT, Previous,code)

MAT_2012Seretide_201201Previous MAT"

Example:

Code=MAT (no blanks)Product= Seretide (leading blanks)Year=2012 (trailing blanks)Yrmo= 201201 (leading and trailing blanks)


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GSK Knowledge Centre @ 2011

Character Functions

CAT: To concatenate (join) two or more character strings, leavingleading and/or trailing blanks unchanged. This function accomplishesthe same task as the concatenation operator (||).

Syntax:CAT(string-1, string-2 )

Note:It is very important to set the length of the resultingcharacter string, using a LENGTH statement (or other method),before using any of the concatenation functions.

Otherwise, the length of the resulting string will default to 200.


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Character Functions

Name Syntax Purpose

CATS Syntax: CATS(string-1,string-2 )

To concatenate (join) two or morecharacter strings, stripping bothleading and trailing blanks.

CATT Syntax: CATT(string-1,string-2 )

To concatenate (join) two or morecharacter strings, stripping onlytrailing blanks.

CATX Syntax: CATX(separator,string-1, string-2 )

To concatenate (join) two or morecharacter strings, stripping bothleading and trailing blanks andinserting one or more separatorcharacters between the strings.

Other Concatenate Functions


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Character Functions

Syntax Output

CAT(Code,Product)CAT(Product,Code,Year) CAT(Latest,Code)

MAT Seretide SeretideMAT2012LatestMAT

CATS(Code,Product)CATS(Product,Code,Year) CATS(Latest,Code)

MATSeretideSeretideMAT2012LatestMAT

CATT(Year,Product)CATT(Year,Code) CATT(Product,Yrmo)

2012 Seretide2012MAT Seretide 201201

CATX(_,Year,Product)CATX(_,Year,Product,Code)

2012_Seretide2012_Seretide_MAT

Example:

Code=MAT (no blanks)Product= Seretide (leading blanks)Year=2012 (trailing blanks)Yrmo= 201201 (leading and trailing blanks)


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Sample Program for Demonstrating the fourconcatenation functions

Primary functions: CAT, CATS, CATT, CATX;

DATA CAT_FUNCTIONS;

STRING1 = "ABC"; * No spaces;

STRING2 = "DEF "; * Three trailing spaces;

STRING3 = " GHI"; * Three leading spaces;

STRING4 = " JKL "; * Three leading and trailing spaces;

LENGTH JOIN1 - JOIN5 $ 20;JOIN1 = CAT(STRING2, STRING3);

JOIN2 = CATS(STRING2, STRING4);

JOIN3 = CATT(STRING2, STRING1);

JOIN4 = CATX(" ",STRING1,STRING3);

JOIN5 = CATX(",",STRING3,STRING4);

RUN;

PROC PRINT DATA=CAT_FUNCTIONS NOOBS;

TITLE "Listing of Data Set CAT_FUNCTIONS";

RUN;


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Output

String1 String2 String3 String4 Join1 Join2 Join3 Join4 Join5

ABC DEF GHI JKL DEF GHI DEFJKL DEFABC ABCGHI

GHI,JKL


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Character Functions

Functions that divide strings into words"

SCAN: Extracts a specified word from a character expression, whereword is defined as the characters separated by a set of specifieddelimiters. The length of the returned variable is 200, unlesspreviously defined.

Syntax: SCAN(character-value, n-word )

character-value is any SAS character expression.

n-word is the nth "word" in the string. If n is greater than thenumber of words, the SCAN function returns a value that containsno characters. If n is negative, the character value is scanned fromright to left. A value of zero is invalid.

C


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Character Functions

Examples:STRING1 = "ABC DEF"

STRING2 = "ONE?TWO THREE+FOUR|FIVE

Syntax: Output:

SCAN(STRING1,2) "DEF"

SCAN(STRING1,-1) "DEF"

SCAN(STRING1,3) no characters

SCAN(STRING2,4) "FIVE"

SCAN(STRING2,2," ") "THREE+FOUR|FIVE"SCAN(STRING1,0) An error in the SAS log


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Character Functions

Functions that substitute letters or words in strings

TRANSLATE: To exchange one character value for another.

For example, you might want to change values 15 to the values AE.

Syntax: TRANSLATE(character-value, to-1, from-1 )


to-n is a single character or a list of character values.

from-n is a single character or a list of characters. Each character listed in from-n is changed to the corresponding

value in to-n. If a character value is not listed in from-n, it will beunaffected.


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Character Functions

Example:CHAR = "12X45

ANS = "Y

Function Output

TRANSLATE(CHAR,"ABCDE","12345") "ABXDE"

TRANSLATE(CHAR,'A','1','B','2','C','3','D','4','E','5') "ABXDE"

TRANSLATE(ANS,"10","YN") "1"


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Character Functions

TRANWRD: To substitute one or more words in a string with areplacement word or words. It works like the find and replace featureof most word processors.

Syntax: TRANWRD(character-value, from-string, to-string)


from-string is one or more characters that you want to replace withthe character or characters in the to-string.

to- string is one or more characters that replace the entire fromstring.


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Character Functions

Examples:STRING = "123 Elm Road",

FROM = "Road

TO ="Rd.

Function Output

TRANWRD(STRING,FROM,TO) "123 Elm Rd."

TRANWRD("Now is the time","is","is not") "Now is not the time"

TRANWRD("one two three","four","4") "one two three"

TRANWRD("Mr. Rogers","Mr."," ") " Rogers


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Character Functions

Functions that compute the length of strings

LENGTH: To determine the length of a character value, not countingtrailing blanks. A null argument returns a value of 1.

Syntax: LENGTH(character-value)


Examples

CHAR = "ABC "

Function OutputLENGTH("ABC") 3

LENGTH(CHAR) 3

LENGTH(" ") 1


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Character Functions

Functions that count the number of letters or substrings in a string

COUNT: To count the number of times a given substring appears in astring. With the use of a modifier, case can be ignored. If no occurrencesof the substring are found, the function returns a 0.

Syntax: COUNT(character-value, find-string ) character-value is any SAS character expression.

find-string is a character variable or SAS string literal to be counted.

The following modifiers, placed in single or double quotation marks,may be used with COUNT:

i or I ignore case.

t or T ignore trailing blanks in both the character value and the

find-string.

Ch t F ti


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Character Functions

Examples:STRING1 = "How Now Brown COW

STRING2 = "ow

Function Output

COUNT(STRING1, STRING2) 3

COUNT(STRING1,STRING2,'I') 4

COUNT(STRING1, "XX") 0

COUNT("ding and dong","g ") 1

COUNT("ding and dong","g ","T") 2


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Character Functions

COUNTC: To count the number of individual characters that appear ordo not appear ina string. With the use of a modifier, case can beignored. Another modifier allows you to count characters that do notappear in the string. If no specified characters are found, the functionreturns a 0.

Syntax: COUNTC(character-value, characters )


characters is one or more characters to be counted. It may be astring

literal (letters in quotation marks) or a character variable. The following modifiers, placed in quotation marks, may be used with

COUNTC:

i or I ignore case.


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Character Functions

o or O If this modifier is used, COUNTC processes the characteror characters and modifiers only once. If the COUNTC function isused in the same DATA step, the previous character and modifiervalues are used and the current values are ignored.

t or T ignore trailing blanks in the character-value or the

characters. Note, this modifier is especially important when

looking for blanks or when you are using the v modifier (below).

v or V count only the characters that do not appear in thecharacter-value. Remember that this count will include trailing

blanks unless the t modifier is used.


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Character Functions

Examples:

STRING1 = "How Now Brown COW

STRING2 = "wo

Function Output

COUNTC("AaBbbCDE","CBA") 3

COUNTC("AaBbbCDE","CBA",'I') 7

COUNTC(STRING1, STRING2) 6

COUNTC(STRING1,STRING2,'I') 8

COUNTC(STRING1, "XX") 0COUNTC("ding and dong","g ") 4 (2 g's and 2 blanks)

COUNTC("ding and dong","g ","T") 2 (blanks trimmed)

COUNTC("ABCDEabcde","BCD",'VI') 4 (A, E, a, and e)


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Date Functions

Function Name Description Syntax &

Example

Output

Date returns the currentdate as a SASdate value

Var=Date(); Var=19004In order to displayin the date formatwe need to apply

format date9. toget 12JAN2012

Datejul converts a Juliandate to a SAS

date value.A Julian date inSAS is a date inthe form yyddd oryyyyddd,

DATEJUL(julian-date)

Xstart=datejul(2011365);

18992When you apply

date format youwill get31DEC2011


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Date Functions

Function

Name

Description Syntax & Example Output

Datepart extracts the date from aSAS datetime value

Datepart(datetime);End_dat=01Jan2100:00:00:00X=datepart(end_dat)

X=01Jan2100

DATETIME returns the current dateand time of day X=Datetime(); X=1641999488.3

Day returns the day of themonth from a SAS datevalue

Syn :-day(date);X=day(date());

X=12

Month returns the month froma SAS date value

Syn :-Month(date);X=month(date());

X=01

Year returns the year from aSAS date value

Syn :-Year(date);X=year(01JAN2012);

X=2012


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Date Functions

Function

Name

Description Syntax & Example Output

MDY Returns a SAS date valuefrom month, day, andyear values

Syn:MDY(month,day,year)a=MDY(9,3,2012);y=DAY(a);

A=09/03/2012Y=3

QTR Returns the yearly quarter

(1-4) from a SAS datevalue

Syn:QTR(date)

Date=QTR (09/03/2012);

Date=3

To get in date we need toapply date format.

Today() returns the current date asa SAS date value

Syn : today();X=today();

19012After applying date formatx=20Jan2012

Weekday() returns the day of the weekfrom a SAS date value.

Syn: Weekday(date);X=weekday(today())

X=6 ( means Friday)


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Date Functions

INTCK: To determine the number of time periods which have beencrossed between two SAS date, time or datetime variables.

Syntax: INTCK(interval,from,to)

Where: interval = character constant or variable name

representing the time period of interest enclosed in single quotes

from = SAS date, time or datetime value identifying the start of atime span

to = SAS date, time or datetime value identifying the end of a timespan

Example Output

Date1=01JAN1980d

Date2=01JAN2012d

X=intck(year,date1,date2); x=32


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Date Functions

INTNX: Creates a SAS date, time or datetime value that is a givennumber of time intervals from a starting value.

Syntax:INTNX(interval,from,to)

Where interval, from and to have the same meanings and definitionsas for the INTCK function described earlier.

Example: Output

date=01Jan2012d

X=intnx(month,date,5); x=19145After applying Date format date9. we will get01Jun2012

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SAS Functions