Question

I have a variable, textvar, that looks like this:

type=1&name=bob
type=2&name=sue

I want to create a new table that looks like this:

type  name
1     bob
2     sue

My approach is to use scan to split the variables on & so for the first observation I have

var1      var2
type=1    name=bob

So now I can use scan again to split on =:

vname = scan(var1, 1, '=');
value = scan(var1, 2, '=');

But how can I now assign value to the variable named vname?

Answer 1

PROC TRANPSOSE is the quickest way. You need an ID variable (dummy or real).

data test;
informat testvar $50.;
input testvar $;
datalines;
type=1&name=bob
type=2&name=sue
;;;;
run;

data test_vert;
set test;
id+1;
length scanner $20 vname vvalue $20;
scanner=scan(testvar,1,"&");
do _t=2 by 1 until (scanner=' ');   
    vname=scan(scanner,1,"=");
    vvalue=scan(scanner,2,"=");
    output;
    scanner=scan(testvar,_t,"&");
end;
run;

proc transpose data=test_vert out=test_T;
by id;
id vname;
var vvalue;
run;