Thanks Mike,

I tried use tranwrd but went to a wrong way:

60 data _null_; 61 length var1 var2 $100; 62 array v(8) var2-var9; 63 var1="5365:6.82::5.82:85:::"; 64 var2=tranwrd(var1,':',': '); 65 var3=tranwrd(var1,'::',':.:'); 66 put var2= / var3=; 67 run;

var2=5365: 6.82: : 5.82: 85: : : var3=5365:6.82:.:5.82:85:.:: NOTE: DATA statement used: real time 0.00 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds

As you can see, I tried to replace "::" with ":.:", I should have translate single ":" to ":." or ": ", as you did, instead of trying to replace "::" with ":.:", which did not work.

Kind regards,

Ya Huang

-----Original Message----- From: Michael S. Zdeb [mailto:msz03@HEALTH.STATE.NY.US] Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 11:15 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: separate ':' delimited filed (was no subject)

Hi. Re...Unfortunately, scan function treat contiguous delimiters as one, therefore, simply scan by ':' won't work. But we can do some preparation before we feed the data to scan.

Another idea... add a space after each delimiter...

data _null_; length var1 $100; array v(8) var2-var9; var1="5365:6.82::5.82:85:::"; do i=1 to 8; v(i)=input(scan(tranwrd(var1,':',': '),i,':'),best.); end; put (var1-var9) (=); run;

Gives...

VAR1=5365:6.82::5.82:85::: VAR2=5365 VAR3=6.82 VAR4=. VAR5=5.82 VAR6=85 VAR7=. VAR8=. VAR9=.

Mike Zdeb New York State Department of Health ESP Tower - Room 1811 Albany, NY 12237 P/518-473-2855 F/630-604-1475