Data Transformation
Parsing:
Splitting fields into atomic
attributes.
=SUBSTR( string, position<, length>)
Use this when you have a known position for characters.
• String: character expression
• Position: start position (starts with 1)
• Length: number of characters to take (missing takes all
to the end)
VAR= ‘ABCDEFG’
NEWVAR= SUBSTR(VAR,2,2)
NEWVAR2= SUBSTR(VAR,4)
NEWVAR= ‘BC’
NEWVAR2= ‘DEFG’
SUBSTR(variable, position<,length>) =
new-characters
Replaces character value contents. Use
this when you know where the
replacement starts.
a='KIDNAP';
substr(a,1,3)='CAT';
a: CATNAP
substr(a,4)='TY' ;
a: KIDTY
INDEX(source, excerpt)
• Searches a character expression for a string of
characters. Returns the location (number)
where the string begins.
a='ABC.DEF (X=Y)';
b='X=Y';
x=index(a,b);
x: 10
x= index(a,’DEF’);
x: 5
Alternative INDEX functions
• INDEXC searches for a single character
• INDEXW searches for a word:
Syntax
INDEXW(source, excerpt<,delimiter>)
Length
Returns the length of a character variable
• The LENGTH and LENGTHN functions return
the same value for non-blank character strings.
LENGTH returns a value of 1 for blank character
strings, whereas LENGTHN returns a value of 0.
• The LENGTH function returns the length of a
character string, excluding trailing blanks,
whereas the LENGTHC function returns the
length of a character string, including trailing
blanks. LENGTH always returns a value that is
less than or equal to the value returned by
LENGTHC.