Parsing between characters using Perl in SAS - regex

Question

I am sure this is a simple thing to do but I cannot seem to find any examples or make it past the numerous documentation sources I have been using.
I have a variable in a table (called location) such as: OH_DRT HOME_G4-T7 77 Cafe Entrance
I want to be able to parse this into several columns based on some delimiters. There is variability in my data set so I thought using perl expressions for pattern matching would be the way to go. I am trying to take that string and break it up into something like this:
State
Building
Name
Desc
OH
DRT HOME
G4
T7 Cafe Entrance
FL
Cleveland
RG
03 Back Entry
I am able to split the first part out
Data Mydata;
Set Int_Data;
retain re;
if _N_ = 1 Then re = prxparse("/(\D{2})/");
if prxmatch(re, location) Then Do
State= prxposn(re,1,location);
end;
It is parsing out any of the other sections I am at a loss for. The only one I have been able to get to work correctly is the State. I assume I should be able to pull anything between two characters.
In my head I should be able to split something like this:
Anything before the first _, anything between the first _ and second _, anything second _ to first -, and then finally anything after the -

Answer 1

Are all records exactly the same? If so:
use warnings;
use strict;
my $data = 'OH_DRT HOME_G4-T7 77 Cafe entrance';
my ($state, $building, $name, $desc);
if ($data =~ /^([A-Z]{2})_(.*)_(\w{2})-\w{2}\s+(.*)$/) {
$state = $1;
$building = $2;
$name = $3;
$desc = $4;
}
print "$state, $building, $name, $desc\n";
The regex works as follows:
Capture two upper-cased letters at the start of the string and put it into $1
Skip an underscore and capture everything until the next underscore and put it into $2
Capture the following two word characters and put them into $3
Skip a hyphen and the following two word characters along with any amount of whitespace, and put the remaining portion of the string into $4
Assign the numbered matches into the more descriptive named variables
Note that if any of the matches/captures fail, all of the named variables will be undefined.
The output of the above is:
OH, DRT HOME, G4, 77 Cafe entrance

Answer 2

You can use a pattern with 4 capture groups, but note that when keeping the following remark into account, it will give T7 77 Cafe entrance in the last group.
and then finally anything after the -
If you want to match anything between the underscores and the - you can use a negated character class excluding characters to match that you specify.
To not cross newlines, you can add a newline and a carriage return [^_\r\n]+
^([^_]+)_([^_]+)_([^-]+)-(.*)
Explanation
^ Start of string
([^_]+)_ Capture 1+ chars other than _ in group 1 and then match it
([^_]+)_ Capture 1+ chars other than _ in group 2 and then match it
([^-]+)- Capture 1+ chars other than - in group 3 and then match it
(.*) Match all after the underscore in group 4
Regex demo
If you want 77 Cafe entrance in group 4:
^([^_]+)_([^_]+)_([^-]+)-[^\s-]*\s*(.*)
Regex demo

Answer 3

I'm sure the regex solution works fine. If you wanted a SCAN solution.
Data WANT(Keep STATE BUILDING NAME DESC);
Length State $2 Building $50 Name $2 Desc $100;
TEST="OH_DRT HOME_G4-T7 77 Cafe Entrance";
State=scan(test,1,"_");
Building=scan(test,2,"_");
temp=scan(test,3,"_");
Name=scan(temp,1,"-");
Desc=scan(temp,2,"-");
Run;