The SQL Procedure

BTRIM function

Removes blanks or specified characters from the beginning, the end, or both the beginning and end of a character string.

BTRIM (<<btrim-specification> <'btrim-character' FROM>> sql-expression)

Arguments

btrim-specification

is one of the following:

LEADING: removes the blanks or specified characters from the beginning of the character string.
TRAILING: removes the blanks or specified characters from the end of the character string.
BOTH: removes the blanks or specified characters from both the beginning and the end of the character string.

Default:

BOTH

btrim-character

is a single character that is to be removed from the character string. The default character is a blank.

sql-expression

must resolve to a character string or character variable and is described in sql-expression.

Details

The BTRIM function operates on character strings. BTRIM removes one or more instances of a single character (the value of btrim-character) from the beginning, the end, or both the beginning and end of a string, depending whether LEADING, TRAILING, or BOTH is specified. If btrim-specification is not specified, then BOTH is used. If btrim-character is omitted, then blanks are removed.

Note: SAS adds trailing blanks to character values that are shorter than the length of the variable. Suppose you have a character variable Z, with length 10, and a value xxabcxx . SAS stores the value with three blanks after the last x (for a total length of 10). If you attempt to remove all the x characters with

btrim(both 'x' from z)

then the result is abcxx because PROC SQL sees the trailing characters as blanks, not the x character. In order to remove all the x characters, use

btrim(both 'x' from btrim(z))

The inner BTRIM function removes the trailing blanks before passing the value to the outer BTRIM function. [cautionend]

Top of Page