Abstract
Background SAS has a set of RX (“regular expression”) pattern matching and string manipulation functions. They provide a great deal more flexibility and power than string functions such as INDEX(), SCAN(), SUBSTR(), etc. in managing character strings. These functions enable one to locate, extract, and change patterns of character strings and are especially useful in situations of varying data patterns, formats, and placement within your source data.
Methods This presentation is an introduction to the power of SAS pattern matching functions and will make use of real-world examples to illustrate their utility. For extracting “poorly-formed” free text electronic medical data, such as notes, drug descriptions, and laboratory values into analytical data files, the presentation will enable programmers to get started in approaching their own data sources by using these functions.The presentation will present both the SAS RX functions as well as touch on the SAS implementation of Perl regular expression functions (PRX).
