Question

I have some code where I am trying to save the first two words into their own variables, and everything after them into a third variable. Is there an elegant way to do this with an input statement?

I know I could read the entire string into a single variable and then chop it up into the pieces that I need but is it possible with the input command?

data email_list;
  attrib word1 word2 everything_else length=$1000;
  infile datalines truncover;
  input word1 $
        word2 $
        everything_else $
        ;
datalines;
one two blah di blah
;
run;

The solution would have:

word1 = "one"
word2 = "two"
everything_else = "blah di blah"

Answer 1

I don’t think you can do that with list input. But, you can do it by switching up midstream:

data email_list;
  attrib word1 word2 everything_else length=$1000;
  infile datalines truncover;
  input word1 $
        word2 $ @;

  input everything_else $1000. ;
  put _all_;
datalines;
one two blah di blah
;
run;