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:
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percent sign (%) – Wildcard Character
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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; |
In a given dataset, the above statements would produce the same result in both cases.
Examples:
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where name like '%ul';
It contains all the data where the name ends with ‘ul’.
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where name like '_ah%';
It contains all the data where the name contains atleast 3 characters, which must contain ‘ah’ at second place.
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where name like '_a___';
It contains all the data where the name contains atleast 5 characters, which must contain ‘a’ at second place.