Date:         Fri, 8 Jul 2005 02:20:24 +0000
Reply-To:     toby dunn <tobydunn@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         toby dunn <tobydunn@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: fuzzy string search
Comments: To: davidlcassell@MSN.COM
In-Reply-To:  <BAY103-F18B94614E04D1134C93279B0DB0@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Well David my pearl headed friend I am not that big of a fan of Perl.
Wonder if it is like when I wasn't a big fan of SQL till I reallt sat down
and started to try to understand it and use it every day.  Hmmm.. It is
around that five year mark since I start learning SAS perhaps it is time to
learn another language.

Perl, Java, C, C+, Cobol, Fortran (the lastest version), hmmm so many
choices....

Toby Dunn




From: DavidL Cassell <davidlcassell@MSN.COM>
Reply-To: DavidL Cassell <davidlcassell@MSN.COM>
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: fuzzy string search
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 17:06:42 -0700
Jennifer_Lin@CHIRON.COM replied:
>I think you may want to look into using regular expressions.  There are SAS
>RX functions available in SAS V8.1: RXPARSE, RXMATCH, etc...
>
>Apparently there are now also new Perl regular expression functions
>available in SAS V9.  Look up functions PRXPARSE,
>PRXMATCH, PRXCHANGE, and PRXPOSN.
>
>PRX Function Reference:
>http://support.sas.com/rnd/base/topics/datastep/perl_regexp/regexp2.html
>
>These seem rather complicated unless you are already a PERL user, and I've
>never used them, but they seem powerful enough to use for even the most
>complicated fuzzy string searches.

No, they're really a piece of cake!  Trust me!

Just because people keep saying Perl is a write-once/read-never language...
:-)

Seriously, the PRX... functions are easier to learn than the RX...
functions,
because there is a lot more in the way of resources for the Perl regular
expressions.  You can go on the internet and I'll guess that you could
search for and find a dozen free Perl regex tutorials in seconds.

Plus, the Perl regexen are relatively intuitive (at least for me), with
basic
rules like

    /Jen/       matches any string with 'Jen' in it
    /(Jen|Jennifer)/     matches any string with 'Jen' or 'Jennifer'

If you're used to using () to group stuff in SAS, and | as a logical OR,
then you're already halfway there.

HTCT (Happy To Cause Trouble),
David
--
David L. Cassell
mathematical statistician
Design Pathways
3115 NW Norwood Pl.
Corvallis OR 97330

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