Date:         Tue, 20 Jan 2004 13:09:47 -0500
Reply-To:     "Hornibrook, Shane" <HornibrookShane@PRAINTL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Comments:     To: "Chang Y. Chung" <chang_y_chung@HOTMAIL.COM>
From:         "Hornibrook, Shane" <HornibrookShane@PRAINTL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Compressing blanks out
Comments: To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.VT.EDU
Content-Type: text/plain

Chang,

I am sure there must be a function for this, but here is a data step method;

data x;
   x = '1        2     3   4';
   do until (length(x)= oldlength);
     oldlength = length(x);
     x = tranwrd(x,'  ',' ');
   end;
   drop oldlength;
run;

proc print;
run;

    x
1 2 3 4

Hope that helps,
--Shane
Shane Hornibrook
Analysis Programmer
PRA International
4105 Lewis & Clark Drive
Charlottesville, VA 22911-5801 USA
HornibrookShane@PRAIntl.com
(434) 951-3433 (direct)
(434) 951-3001 (fax)





-----Original Message-----
From: Chang Y. Chung [mailto:chang_y_chung@HOTMAIL.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 12:39 PM
To: SAS-L@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Compressing blanks out


Hi,

There has to be a better way to compress two or more consecutive space
characters into one within a character variable. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Cheers,
Chang

data;
  ...
  new_str = tranwrd(tranwrd(tranwrd(tranwrd(tranwrd(old_str,
            "  "," "),"  "," "),"  "," "),"  "," "),"  "," ");
  ...
run;