Date:         Tue, 2 Mar 1999 14:13:32 +0100
Reply-To:     adolf-a.quast@DB.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Adolf Quast <adolf-a.quast@DB.COM>
Subject:      Re: Concatenating Character Variables + Converting Date Values
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi,
 
here are the solutions for your problems:
 
Note that you need the TRIM-function to get rid of trailing blanks.
 
 
/* 1. Concatenate two character-variables */
 
data _NULL_ ;
 
  PRENAME = "FRED" ;
  SURNAME = "LYCETT" ;
 
  NAME = trim(PRENAME) !! " " !! trim(SURNAME) ;
 
  put NAME= ;
 
run ;
 
 
Note that the solutions for DATE2 and DATE3 only show the convertion from a
character-variable
into another character-variable.
 
Another solution would be to create a SAS-Datevalue and define a format for it
(Variable DATE4).
 
/* 2. Converting Date-Values */
 
data TEST ;
 
  length DATE1-DATE3 $ 10 /* character */
         DATE4 8 ;        /* numeric   */
 
  DATE1 = "02281999" ;    /* Original date string */
 
  DATE2 = put(input(DATE1,mmddyy8.),ddmmyy8.) ;
  DATE3 = put(input(DATE1,mmddyy8.),eurdfdd10.) ; /* New european format */
  DATE4 = input(DATE1,mmddyy8.) ;
 
  put DATE1= ;
  put DATE2= ;
  put DATE3= ;
  put DATE4= ;
 
  format DATE4 eurdfdd10. ;
 
run ;
 
 
 
Hope that helps,
 
     Adolf Quast
 
 
------- Original Message --------
 
 
Dear All,
 
I have two variables -- both are of character format. They are called
FORENAME and SURNAME.  I would like to derive a new variable
)let's call it NAME) which will be as follows:
 
 NAME = FORENAME SURNAME
 
So if FORENAME takes the value FRED and SURNAME the value LYCETT
then the new variable NAME will need to take
the value:  FRED LYCETT.
 
I would appreciate very much if i would receive your comments on how
to do it, please.
 
In addition, I have a variable that shows the date according to
american format ie. month/day/year. I would rather prefer to have
this variable according to european format ie. dd/month/year.
May I have you suggestions on how to make the conversion, please.
 
Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to consider my
request. I look forward to hearing from you.
 
Yours Sincerely
Panos Papanikolaou
Research Fellow
SONS
UWCM
Cardiff
Great Britain