Pattern matching lets you find chunks of text that have a particular pattern - even patterns that would be very hard to find using SAS® functions like index() and substr(). For example, try finding all strings which have two consecutive words that are the same, not counting capitalization. Difficult with traditional SAS® functions, but Perl's 'regular expressions' give you a simple language to search for patterns, extract patterns from strings, and even change text that matches your patterns. This is invaluable for all manner of text manipulation, including validation, text replacement, and string testing. With the advent of SAS® 9, the power of Perl's regular expressions is now available in the DATA step.
In this workshop, you will learn:
- how to use Perl regular expressions in the DATA step;
- how to write SAS code to access the PRX functions and CALL routines;
- how Perl regular expressions fit into five basic rules;
- how to write some simple Perl regular expressions; and
- how to use these Perl regular expressions to search for text and replace text.
Familiarity with the DATA step is required. No prior knowledge of Perl is needed.
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