Extracting first character in a string variable

[Jill Stoltzfus]

Hello everyone. I'm trying to extract the first character in a string variable representing diagnostic codes (e.g., 536.3 Gastroparesis) because I need to determine the frequency of general codes by their first number (e.g., 5's, 7's, 9's). However, I can't seem to locate any syntax that allows me to do this.

Your help would be much appreciated--thanks!

Sincerely,

Jill Stoltzfus





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[Daniel Robertson]

The SUBSTR() function does this, e.g.,

string generalCode (a1).
compute generalCode = substr(code,1,1).

 From the syntax guide:
SUBSTR. SUBSTR(strexpr,pos[,length]). String. Returns the substring
beginning at position pos of strexpr and running for length length. If
the optional argument length is omitted, returns the substring beginning
at position pos of strexpr and running to the end of strexpr. For
example SUBSTR(’abcd’, 2) returns ’bcd’ and SUBSTR(’abcd’, 2, 2) returns
’bc’. When used on the left side of an equals sign, the substring is
replaced by the string specified on the right side of the equals sign.
The rest of the original string remains intact. For example,
SUBSTR(ALPHA6,3,1)='*' changes the third character of all values for
ALPHA6 to *. If the replacement string is longer or shorter than the
substring, the replacement is truncated or padded with blanks on the
right to an equal length.

Hope this helps,


Jill Stoltzfus wrote:

> Hello everyone. I'm trying to extract the first character in a string variable representing diagnostic codes (e.g., 536.3 Gastroparesis) because I need to determine the frequency of general codes by their first number (e.g., 5's, 7's, 9's). However, I can't seem to locate any syntax that allows me to do this.
>
> Your help would be much appreciated--thanks!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Jill Stoltzfus
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.
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>

--
Daniel Robertson
Senior Research and Planning Associate
Institutional Research and Planning
Cornell University / irp.cornell.edu

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[Spousta Jan]

Hi Jill

The standard function is:

Compute firstchar = substr(ltrim(diagcode), 1, 1).

Provided "firstchar" is a string variable.

If the diagnostic codes already start on the position one, you can go the straight way:

String firstchar (a1).
Compute firstchar = diagcode.

(The rest of the string is dropped because the variable firstchar is too short to contain it.)

/All code untested, but I believe that it will be correct at least in principle./

Jan


-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Jill Stoltzfus
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 4:36 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Extracting first character in a string variable

Hello everyone. I'm trying to extract the first character in a string variable representing diagnostic codes (e.g., 536.3 Gastroparesis) because I need to determine the frequency of general codes by their first number (e.g., 5's, 7's, 9's). However, I can't seem to locate any syntax that allows me to do this.

Your help would be much appreciated--thanks!

Sincerely,

Jill Stoltzfus





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