Mysteries of CHAR.SUBSTR
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Hi Listers,
I am attempting to grab text up until a semi-colon in string variable "Name3". The new variable, "Name3_1", has been assigned an adequate width. This line of syntax produces an error/warning that the third argument is invalid... COMPUTE Name3_1 = CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). ...while this line of code does not (and variable "NoThird" is fully populated with either a "0" or "1"): IF (NoThird=0 OR NoThird=1) Name3_1 = CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). Both statements are followed by EXECUTE. Aside from my brain, what am I missing here? Thanks, Bob Walker Surveys & Forecasts, LLC www.safllc.com ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD |
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There some gaps in the problem presentation that would be useful to know about.
I assume that you sometimes get the error when using the first statement and that this "Jones, George;who" does not yield an error message but this "Wills, Bob" or "Wills, Bob,yeah him" does yield an error because index returns a value of 0 if the character is not found and 0-1 is a problem for char.substr. As "" or ";" or "," would be. It'd be nice to know how NoThird is computed. Gene Maguin -----Original Message----- From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Bob Walker Sent: Friday, October 23, 2015 4:00 PM To: [hidden email] Subject: Mysteries of CHAR.SUBSTR Hi Listers, I am attempting to grab text up until a semi-colon in string variable "Name3". The new variable, "Name3_1", has been assigned an adequate width. This line of syntax produces an error/warning that the third argument is invalid... COMPUTE Name3_1 = CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). ...while this line of code does not (and variable "NoThird" is fully populated with either a "0" or "1"): IF (NoThird=0 OR NoThird=1) Name3_1 = CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). Both statements are followed by EXECUTE. Aside from my brain, what am I missing here? Thanks, Bob Walker Surveys & Forecasts, LLC www.safllc.com ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD |
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I agree with Gene--it would be helpful to have a small dataset that illustrates the problem. Using the very small dataset I created (see below), both of your methods of computing Name_3 are working just fine (using SPSS 23.0.0.2, 32-bit version, Windows 7 Professional, SP2). HTH.
DATA LIST list / Name3 (A35). BEGIN DATA "Bob Walker; Surveys & Forecasts" "Gene Maguin; UB" "Bruce Weaver; Lakehead U" END DATA. COMPUTE NoThird = MOD($casenum,2). FORMATS NoThird(F1). LIST. STRING Name3_1v1 Name3_1v2 (A25). COMPUTE Name3_1v1 = CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). IF (NoThird=0 OR NoThird=1) Name3_1v2 = CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). LIST. Output from final LIST: Name3 NoThird Name3_1v1 Name3_1v2 Bob Walker; Surveys & Forecasts 1 Bob Walker Bob Walker Gene Maguin; UB 0 Gene Maguin Gene Maguin Bruce Weaver; Lakehead U 1 Bruce Weaver Bruce Weaver Number of cases read: 3 Number of cases listed: 3
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Bruce Weaver bweaver@lakeheadu.ca http://sites.google.com/a/lakeheadu.ca/bweaver/ "When all else fails, RTFM." PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING: 1. My Hotmail account is not monitored regularly. To send me an e-mail, please use the address shown above. 2. The SPSSX Discussion forum on Nabble is no longer linked to the SPSSX-L listserv administered by UGA (https://listserv.uga.edu/). |
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Thanks guys,
Your comments forced me to go back and look more closely at the raw data file (always a good idea). I found the source of the discrepancy. I was using SAMPLE to test my CHAR.SUBSTR syntax, as the base file was very large. There were only a handful of occurrences in the full file without a second semi-colon. Using SAMPLE did not always capture one of those oddball records. I've created some IF-THEN logic to avoid the error and that seems to have solved the dilemma. Many thanks!! Bob Walker Surveys & Forecasts, LLC www.safllc.com -----Original Message----- From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Bruce Weaver Sent: Friday, October 23, 2015 5:58 PM To: [hidden email] Subject: Re: Mysteries of CHAR.SUBSTR I agree with Gene--it would be helpful to have a small dataset that illustrates the problem. Using the very small dataset I created (see below), both of your methods of computing Name_3 are working just fine (using SPSS 23.0.0.2, 32-bit version, Windows 7 Professional, SP2). HTH. DATA LIST list / Name3 (A35). BEGIN DATA "Bob Walker; Surveys & Forecasts" "Gene Maguin; UB" "Bruce Weaver; Lakehead U" END DATA. COMPUTE NoThird = MOD($casenum,2). FORMATS NoThird(F1). LIST. STRING Name3_1v1 Name3_1v2 (A25). COMPUTE Name3_1v1 = CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). IF (NoThird=0 OR NoThird=1) Name3_1v2 = CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). LIST. Output from final LIST: Name3 NoThird Name3_1v1 Name3_1v2 Bob Walker; Surveys & Forecasts 1 Bob Walker Bob Walker Gene Maguin; UB 0 Gene Maguin Gene Maguin Bruce Weaver; Lakehead U 1 Bruce Weaver Bruce Weaver Number of cases read: 3 Number of cases listed: 3 Maguin, Eugene wrote > There some gaps in the problem presentation that would be useful to > know about. > I assume that you sometimes get the error when using the first > statement and that this "Jones, George;who" does not yield an error > message but this "Wills, Bob" or "Wills, Bob,yeah him" does yield an > error because index returns a value of 0 if the character is not found > and 0-1 is a problem for char.substr. As "" or ";" or "," would be. > > It'd be nice to know how NoThird is computed. > > Gene Maguin > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto: > SPSSX-L@.UGA > ] On Behalf Of Bob Walker > Sent: Friday, October 23, 2015 4:00 PM > To: > SPSSX-L@.UGA > Subject: Mysteries of CHAR.SUBSTR > > Hi Listers, > > I am attempting to grab text up until a semi-colon in string variable > "Name3". The new variable, "Name3_1", has been assigned an adequate width. > > This line of syntax produces an error/warning that the third argument > is invalid... > > COMPUTE Name3_1 = CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). > > ...while this line of code does not (and variable "NoThird" is fully > populated with either a "0" or "1"): > > IF (NoThird=0 OR NoThird=1) Name3_1 = > CHAR.SUBSTR(Name3,1,CHAR.INDEX(Name3,";")-1). > > Both statements are followed by EXECUTE. > > Aside from my brain, what am I missing here? > > Thanks, > > Bob Walker > Surveys & Forecasts, LLC > www.safllc.com > > ===================== > To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to > LISTSERV@.UGA > (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the > list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to > manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD > > ===================== > To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to > LISTSERV@.UGA > (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the > list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to > manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD ----- -- Bruce Weaver [hidden email] http://sites.google.com/a/lakeheadu.ca/bweaver/ "When all else fails, RTFM." NOTE: My Hotmail account is not monitored regularly. To send me an e-mail, please use the address shown above. -- View this message in context: http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/Mysteries-of-CHAR-SUBSTR-tp5730850p5730855.html Sent from the SPSSX Discussion mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD ===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD |
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