PRXPARSE, is it possible to combine selections?

[wphupkes]

All,

I've got a datastep in which I extract a number from a string. But... The strings are changing from time to time, but only the first part before the word "Incident" (sometime there appear some numbers, but I don't need those). So what I can do, is make 2 datasteps with the statements:

PATTERN = PRXPARSE("/^Incident/"); --> start from this word

PATTERN = PRXPARSE("/\d\d\d\d\d?/"); --> collect the desired number

But it must be able to combine these statements, I think? Saves a lot of time and space! Thanks in advance!

 

[wphupkes]

Got it!

DATA work.test2 ;
set test;
RETAIN regExp ;
IF _N_=1 THEN regExp = PRXPARSE("/(I|i)ncident\s(\d+).?/") ;
IF PRXMATCH(regExp, text) THEN number = PRXPOSN(regExp, 2,text) ;
run;

 

[ChrisW75]

Well done Duckman! Thanks for posting the answer as well. PRXPARSE is some pretty serious code! I've used it a couple of times, and it's always a trial and error thing for me.
Nice work.

Chris
Business Analyst, Code Monkey, Data Wrangler.
SAS Guru.