Date:         Fri, 2 Nov 2001 17:15:17 -0500
Reply-To:     Edward Heaton <HEATONE@WESTAT.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Edward Heaton <HEATONE@WESTAT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Simple Base SAS Qn.
Comments: To: Jeff Morison <jmt_mtf@YAHOO.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Jeff;

There are a couple of solutions to your problem.  You might try ...

        Data _null_ ;
           Input x $36. ;
           If index(x,"Y")
              then numberOfYs = length( compress( x , "N" ) ) ;
              Else numberOfYs = 0 ;
           Put x "has " numberOfYs "Ys." ;
        Cards4 ;
        NNNNYNNNNNNYYYNYYYNNYNNYNNNNYYYNNYYY
        NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
        YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
        ;;;;

which produces

        1    Data _null_ ;
        2       Input x $36. ;
        3       If index(x,"Y")
        4          then numberOfYs = length( compress( x , "N" ) ) ;
        5          Else numberOfYs = 0 ;
        6       Put x "has " numberOfYs "Ys." ;
        7    Cards4 ;

        NNNNYNNNNNNYYYNYYYNNYNNYNNNNYYYNNYYY has 15 Ys.
        NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN has 0 Ys.
        YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY has 36 Ys.
        NOTE: DATA statement used:
              real time           0.26 seconds
              Memory                            136k

        11   ;;;;

This works because your example has only Ns and Ys.  Suppose you had lots of
different characters in variable length strings.  Then you might try ...

        Data _null_ ;
           Input x $36. ;
           numberOfYs = 0 ;
           Do i=1 to length(x) ;
              If ( subStr(x,i,1) eq "Y" ) then numberOfYs = numberOfYs + 1 ;
           End ;
           Put x "has " numberOfYs "Ys." ;
        Cards4 ;
        NNNNYNNNNNNYYYNYYYNNYNNYNNNNYYYNNYYY
        NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
        YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
        ;;;;

It works as well; I'll leave it up to you to test this code and check the
log.

Hope this helps,
Ed

Edward Heaton, Senior Systems Analyst,
Westat (An Employee-Owned Research Corporation),
1550 Research Boulevard, Room 2018, Rockville, MD 20850-3195
Voice:  (301) 610-4818                      Fax:  (301) 294-3992
mailto:EdwardHeaton@westat.com              http://www.westat.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Morison [mailto:jmt_mtf@YAHOO.COM]
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 4:55 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Simple Base SAS Qn.


  Hi Folks:

       How to count # of times a particular letter
appears in a string.

For Example:  I need to count how many Ys are in the
string

'NNNNYNNNNNNYYYNYYYNNYNNYNNNNYYYNNYYY'


TIA.

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