SCAN

SCAN

Selects a given word from a character expression

Category: Character

Syntax
Arguments
Details
Examples

Syntax

SCAN(argument,n<, delimiters>)

Arguments

argument

specifies any character expression.

n

specifies a numeric expression that produces the number of the word in the character string you want SCAN to select.

Tip:

If n is negative, SCAN selects the word in the character string starting from the end of the string. If |n| is greater than the number of words in the character string, SCAN returns a blank value.

delimiters

specifies a character expression that produces characters that you want SCAN to use as word separators in the character string.

Default:

If you omit delimiters in an ASCII environment, SAS uses the following characters:

blank . < ( + & ! $ * ) ; ^ - / , % |

In ASCII environments without the ^ character, SCAN uses the ~ character instead.

If you omit delimiters on an EBCDIC environment, SAS uses the following characters:

blank . < ( + | & ! $ * ) ; ¬ - / , % | ¢

Tip:

If you represent delimiters as a constant, enclose delimiters in quotation marks.

Details

Leading delimiters before the first word in the character string do not effect SCAN. If there are two or more contiguous delimiters, SCAN treats them as one.

Examples

SAS Statements Results

arg='ABC.DEF(X=Y)'; word=scan(arg,3); put word;

X=Y

word=scan(arg,-3); put word;

ABC

SAS Statements	Results
arg='ABC.DEF(X=Y)'; word=scan(arg,3); put word;	X=Y
word=scan(arg,-3); put word;	ABC

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