Date:         Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:13:33 -0500
Reply-To:     OR Stats <stats112@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         OR Stats <stats112@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Inverse of %SCAN for numeric position
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi Everyone,  Does SAS have a macro function that is the inverse of its
%SCAN function?  The purpose is the following:

The user of my macro would input his text.  I would match the text with an
element in my array and return the position within the array.  So that given
my array is declared as

%let Array = Jack Jill Bob Anne;

When the end-user inputs any one of the four names in my macro function, I
would like to have 1 returned if he typed in Jack; 2 if he typed Jill and so
forth.  So while using SAS's %SCAN function, given the position, and the
function returns the name.  I would like to have that function inversed so
that given the name, a SAS function returns the position of the element
within the array that matches the name.   Does SAS have this function?

Thank you!