SUBSTR (right of) Function

SUBSTR (right of =) Function

Extracts a substring from an argument

Category: Character

Syntax

< variable => SUBSTR ( string, position <, length >)

Arguments

variable

specifies a valid SAS variable name .

string

specifies any SAS character expression.

position

specifies a numeric expression that is the beginning character position.

length

specifies a numeric expression that is the length of the substring to extract.
Interaction: If length is zero, a negative value, or larger than the length of the expression that remains in string after position , SAS extracts the remainder of the expression. SAS also sets _ERROR_ to 1 and prints a note to the log indicating that the length argument is invalid.
Tip: If you omit length , SAS extracts the remainder of the expression.

Details

If the SUBSTR function returns a value to a variable that has not yet been assigned a length, by default the variable length is determined by the length of the first argument.

The SUBSTR function returns a portion of an expression that you specify in string . The portion begins with the character that you specify by position , and is the number of characters that you specify in length .

Examples

SAS Statements	Results
	----+----1----+----2
date='06MAY98'; month=substr(date,3,3); year=substr(date,6,2); put @1 month @5 year;	MAY 98