Hi Adam,
Maybe something like this could help:
IF (SUBSTR(LTRIM(RTRIM(UPCASE(course1))),1,3) =
SUBSTR(LTRIM(RTRIM(UPCASE(course2))),1,3)) course_cat =
SUBSTR(LTRIM(RTRIM(UPCASE(course2))),1,3).
This assumes that you are evaluating only the first 3 characters in your course ID.
HTH,
John
-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:
[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Adam Maltese
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 2:41 PM
To:
[hidden email]
Subject: Syntax help for matching string data
Hello. I'm hoping someone might be able to provide some guidance. I'm trying
to work through a large data set with multiple course records for students.
In an effort to make the data file more manageable, I'm going through the
file and compressing all classes that represent the same course (e.g.,
Calculus split over two semesters). In doing this, I've found that the
values for the CourseName variable differ slightly for many of the cases
(e.g., Calc1A & Calc1B). Because this is not an exact match, I can't come up
with an automated way to evaluate the strings to see if the first few
letters match up. I tried to create syntax using the SUBSTR command in a
conditional statement, but that did not work. If anyone has any ideas about
how to solve this, please let me know. Thank you for your input.
Cheers,
Adam Maltese
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