String extraction using SAS Scan and Substr functions

In my last blog we saw string extraction using perl function. Today we are going to extract and concatenate character string using SAS Scan and Substr functions. Syntax:      SCAN(argument,n,<delimiters>) where argument specifies the character variable or expression to scan. n specifies which word to read. delimiters are special characters that must be enclosed in single quotation marks (' '). If you do not specify delimiters, default delimiters are used.       SUBSTR(argument,position,<n>)  where argument specifies the character variable or expression to scan. position is the character position to start from. n specifies the number of characters to extract. If n is omitted, all remaining characters are included in the substring.  Let us see an example: In the dataset work.Company there are four columns Name, Age, Sex and SSN. We wants to create a new data set employeeID with a column named ID which contains unique Identification number for the employees based on their last name and last four digits of their  SSN. Company g Obs Name Age Sex SSN 1 Morrison, Michael 32 M 2 Rudelich, Herbert 39 M 129-42-9261 3 Vincent, Martina 34 F 074-53-9892 4 Benito, Gisela 32 F 228-88-9649 5 Sirignano, Emily 12 F 442-21-8075 6 Harbinger, Nicholas 36 M 446-93-2122 7 Phillipon, Marie-Odile 28 F 776-84-5391 8 Gunter, Thomas 27 M 929-75-0218       data employeeID;  set company;  ID = (scan(name, 1, ","))!!(substr(SSN,8,4));  run;  proc print data=employeeID;  run; Explanation: scan(name, 1, ",") name is the character variable to scan 1 is the position of the word to read "," is the delimiter substr(SSN,8,4) SSN is the character variable to scan. 8 is the character position to start from. 4 specifies the number of characters to extract Result Obs Name Age Sex SSN ID 1 Morrison, Michael 32 M Morrison 2 Rudelich, Herbert 39 M 129-42-9261 Rudelich9261 3 Vincent, Martina 34 F 074-53-9892 Vincent9892 4 Benito, Gisela 32 F 228-88-9649 Benito9649 5 Sirignano, Emily 12 F 442-21-8075 Sirignano8075 6 Harbinger, Nicholas 36 M 446-93-2122 Harbinger2122 7 Phillipon, Marie-Odile 28 F 776-84-5391 Phillipon5391 8 Gunter, Thomas 27 M 929-75-0218 Gunter0218