Date:         Wed, 22 Dec 1999 10:43:38 +0100
Reply-To:     Fabrizio Carinci <carinci@CMNS.MNEGRI.IT>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Comments:     To: "Dorfman, Paul" <pdorfma@CITICORP.COM>
From:         Fabrizio Carinci <carinci@CMNS.MNEGRI.IT>
Subject:      Re: Number of words in a string ?
Comments: To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.VT.EDU
In-Reply-To:  <199912211655.RAA24379@alpha400.cmns.mnegri.it>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Dear Paul and SAS-Lers,
I do agree with your statements, but to the best of my knowledge such a
question still remains unsolved: how to count the number of words in a
string.....by:
1) avoiding 200 length limitation of character variables in a data step
2) avoiding a do loop in macro code (may be very slow if called multiple times)
3) allowing one **and more** spaces as simultaneous valid delimiters.

I did search in SAS-L archives (gopher and deja-vu) and there seems to be
no such solution, but I would be glad if someone will prove me wrong !

Ciao a tutti,
Fabrizio Carinci

On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, Dorfman, Paul wrote:

> (Should you wish to reply off-list, please reply to sashole@earthlink.net)
>
> cpwong <cpwong@se.cuhk.edu.hk>, in part, wrote:
>
> >Is there any SAS function that return the number of words in a string ?
>
> cpwong,
>
> It truly amazes me how often this question has been asked (and answered) on
> sas-l during the last year and a half or so: I am beginning to think that
> counting words in a string is the most frequent operation performed using
> SAS software! The answer is 'no', there is no such function in SAS, but it
> can be simulated as a macro-based DATA step function as follows:
>
> 1   %macro nwords(s);
> 2        (compress(&s) ne ' ') *
> 3        (length(left(compbl(&s)))-length(compress(&s))+1)
> 4   %mend nwords;
> 5
> 6   data _null_;
> 7      string = "dasj h 07y  lk0 - ldsmv";
> 8      nwords = %nwords(string);
> 9      put nwords=;
> 10  run;
> NWORDS=6
>
> %nwords() uses the blank character as a delimiter, and returns 0 if the
> string is empty.
>
> On a different note, if the Institute had followed our sas-l communications
> and noticed how often the question had been asked, they would probably have
> already implemented such a function (with the ability to specify delimiters,
> of course) without even the necessity to put it on the SAS Ballot. Not that
> they have not introduced a number of new useful functions in V8, but IMNSHO,
> they could have given us NWORDS instead of the real brainer they must have
> been working hard to implement: the new function returning the number of
> days between two SAS dates.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Paul M. Dorfman
> ========================
> Citicorp Universal Card
> Jacksonville, Fl
> ========================
>

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Fabrizio Carinci, Statistician
Head, Unit of Statistics and Information Systems,
Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Epidemiology
Consorzio Mario Negri Sud, Strada Nazionale-66030 S.Maria Imbaro (Chieti)-ITALY
Web: http://www.cmns.mnegri.it
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TEL: 39-0872-570265   FAX:  39-0872-578240     E-MAIL:carinci@cmns.mnegri.it
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