Like Operator in SAS Programming

LIKE Operator: Pattern Matching

The LIKE operator used to select data by comparing the values of a character variable to a specified pattern. It is case sensitive.

Task 1: To select all students with a name that starts with the letter S.

There are two special characters patterns available for specifying a pattern:

• percent sign (%) – Wildcard Character

• underscore ( _ ) – Fill in the blanks

data readin;
input name $ Section $ Score;
cards;
Raj  A 80
Atul . 77
Priya . 45
Sandy A 67
David B 39
Rahul . 95
Sahil C 84
Savitri B 65
;
run;

data readin1;
set readin;
where name like 'S%';
run;

Output:

In a given dataset, the above statements would produce the same result in both cases.

Examples:

1. where name like '%ul';

   Output:
   

   It contains all the data where the name ends with ‘ul’.

2. where name like '_ah%';

   Output:
   

   It contains all the data where the name contains atleast 3 characters, which must contain ‘ah’ at second place.

3. where name like '_a___';

   Output:
   

   It contains all the data where the name contains atleast 5 characters, which must contain ‘a’ at second place.