Delete parts of variables, but how??

[wphupkes]

Hello,

I've got a dataset in which I want to remain everything after a particular word, like "debtor". Like:

ID | Variable_1
1 xxx debtor profile 7
2 x debtor profile 3 to 1
3 xx debtor profiles 133 to 155
4 xxxx debtor profile 3

So the final result would be:

ID | Variable_1
1 profile 7
2 profile 3 to 1
3 profiles 133 to 155
4 profile 3

In other words, I need a statement with which I could delete everything to the left of a particular word. Anyone any idea? Thanks in advance!

 

[kdt82]

Hi

You could use a combination of index and substr

    variable_1 = substr(variable_1,index(variable_1,'debtor'));

HTH

 

[wphupkes]

THanks!

The only thing is, when there's no "debtor" stated in the records, SAS responds with the error(s): "NOTE: Invalid second argument to function SUBSTR at line 235 column 14.". While I get a list of multiple errors (ending by " Limit set by ERRORS= option reached. Further errors of this type will not be printed."), everything works well! So I've got to surpress the error statements, but that wouldn't be too hard.

Problem solved!

 

[kdt82]

You can conditionally execute to solve the problem:

loc = index(variable_1, 'debtor');
if loc then variable_1 = substr(variable_1,loc);