Date:         Tue, 11 May 2004 16:28:39 -0700
Reply-To:     cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "David L. Cassell" <cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV>
Subject:      Re: Can rxparse be useful for this address cleaning work??
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

peter.crawford@BLUEYONDER.CO.UK replied [in part]:
> It seemed too good a chance to follow up... here in Montreal - at the
Futures Forum
> Perhaps there might be some interest in an informat to support regular
expressions ...
>
> Meanwhile, if you use, or think you would use regular expressions (if
simpler),
> it might be worthn forwarding the idea to suggest@sas.com indicating
the
> kind of business benefit you see in supporting regular expression
informats

I know that some birdies in Base SAS Research have been looking into
the use of Perl regexen (it's the plural of regex, right?) in informats,
for at least a full year.  After all, they have access to the Perl 5.6.1
regex engine within the data step already.  But figuring out what to
make
it do, and what not to let it do, and how to implement the to-do list
are non-trivial.  So, if anyone has some detailed examples where current
informats don't do the trick, and Perl regex features would, then get
your
little fingers going.

David
--
David Cassell, CSC
Cassell.David@epa.gov
Senior computing specialist
mathematical statistician