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Functions and CALL Routines

ANYALNUM Function



Searches a character string for an alphanumeric character, and returns the first position at which the character is found.
Category: Character
Restriction: I18N Level 2

Syntax
Arguments
Details
Comparisons
Examples
Example 1: Scanning a String from Left to Right
Example 2: Scanning a String from Right to Left
See Also

Syntax

ANYALNUM(string <,start>)


Arguments

string

specifies a character constant, variable, or expression to search.

start

is an optional integer that specifies the position at which the search should start and the direction in which to search.


Details

The results of the ANYALNUM function depend directly on the translation table that is in effect (see TRANTAB System Option) and indirectly on the ENCODING System Option and the LOCALE System Option in SAS National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.

The ANYALNUM function searches a string for the first occurrence of any character that is a digit or an uppercase or lowercase letter. If such a character is found, ANYALNUM returns the position in the string of that character. If no such character is found, ANYALNUM returns a value of 0.

If you use only one argument, ANYALNUM begins the search at the beginning of the string. If you use two arguments, the absolute value of the second argument, start, specifies the position at which to begin the search. The direction in which to search is determined in the following way:

ANYALNUM returns a value of zero when one of the following is true:


Comparisons

The ANYALNUM function searches a character string for an alphanumeric character. The NOTALNUM function searches a character string for a non-alphanumeric character.


Examples


Example 1: Scanning a String from Left to Right

The following example uses the ANYALNUM function to search a string from left to right for alphanumeric characters.

data _null_;
   string='Next = Last + 1;';
   j=0;
   do until(j=0);
      j=anyalnum(string,j+1);
      if j=0 then put +3 "That's all";
      else do;
         c=substr(string,j,1);
         put +3 j= c=;
      end;
   end;
run;

The following lines are written to the SAS log:

   j=1 c=N
   j=2 c=e
   j=3 c=x
   j=4 c=t
   j=8 c=L
   j=9 c=a
   j=10 c=s
   j=11 c=t
   j=15 c=1
   That's all


Example 2: Scanning a String from Right to Left

The following example uses the ANYALNUM function to search a string from right to left for alphanumeric characters.

data _null_;
   string='Next = Last + 1;';
   j=999999;
   do until(j=0);
      j=anyalnum(string,1-j);
      if j=0 then put +3 "That's all";
      else do;
         c=substr(string,j,1);
         put +3 j= c=;
      end;
   end;
run;

The following lines are written to the SAS log:

   j=15 c=1
   j=11 c=t
   j=10 c=s
   j=9 c=a
   j=8 c=L
   j=4 c=t
   j=3 c=x
   j=2 c=e
   j=1 c=N
   That's all


See Also

Function:

NOTALNUM Function

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