Reading text file in SAS with delimiter in wrong places - sas

Question

I am reading a .txt file into SAS, that uses "|" as the delimiter. The issue is there is one column that is using "|" as a word separator as well instead of acting like delimiter, this needs to be in one column.
For example the txt file looks like:
apple|fruit|Healthy|choices|of|food|12|2012|chart
needs to look like this in the SAS dataset:
apple | fruit | Healthy choices of Food | 12 | 2012 | chart
How do I eliminate "|" between "Healthy choices of Food"?

Answer 1

I think this will do what you want:
data tmp1;
length tmp $100;
input tmp $;
cards;
apple|fruit|Healthy|choices|of|food|12|2012|chart
apple|fruit|Healthy|choices|of|food|and|lots|of|other|stuff|12|2012|chart
;
run;
data tmp2;
set tmp1;
num_delims=length(tmp)-length(compress(tmp,"|"));
expected_delims=5;
extra_delims=num_delims-expected_delims;
length new_var $100;
i=1;
do while(scan(tmp,i,"|") ne "");
if i<=2 or (extra_delims+2)<i<=num_delims then new_var=trim(new_var)||scan(tmp,i,"|")||"|";
else new_var=trim(new_var)||scan(tmp,i,"|")||"#";
i+1;
end;
new_var=left(tranwrd(new_var,"#"," "));
run;

Answer 2

This isn't particularly elegant, but it will work:
data tmp;
input tmp $50.;
cards;
apple|fruit|Healthy|choices|of|food|12|2012|chart
;
run;
data tmp;
set tmp;
var1 = scan(tmp,1,'|');
var2 = scan(tmp,2,'|');
var4 = scan(tmp,-3,'|');
var5 = scan(tmp,-2,'|');
var6 = scan(tmp,-1,'|');
var3 = tranwrd(tmp,trim(var1)||"|"||trim(var2),"");
var3 = tranwrd(var3,trim(var4)||"|"||trim(var5)||"|"||trim(var6),"");
var3 = tranwrd(var3,"|"," ");
run;

Answer 3

Expanding a little on Itzy's answer, here is another possible solution:
data want;
/* Define variables */
attrib item length=$10 label='Item';
attrib class length=$10 label='Family';
attrib desc length=$80 label='Item Description';
attrib count length=8 label='Some number';
attrib year length=$4 label='Year';
attrib somevar length=$10 label='Some variable';
length countc $8; /* A temp variable */
infile 'c:\temp\delimited_temp.txt' lrecl=1000 truncover;
input;
item = scan(_infile_,1,'|','mo');
class = scan(_infile_,2,'|','mo');
countc = scan(_infile_,-3,'|','mo'); /* Temp var for numeric field */
count = inputn(countc,'8.'); /* Re-read the numeric field */
year = scan(_infile_,-2,'|','mo');
somevar = scan(_infile_,-1,'|','mo');
desc = tranwrd(
substr(_infile_
,length(item)+length(class)+3
,length(_infile_)
- ( length(item)+length(class)+length(countc)
+length(year)+length(somevar)+5))
,'|',' ');
drop countc;
run;
The key in this case it to read your file directly and handle the delimiters yourself. This can be tricky and requires that your data file is exactly as described. A much better solution would be to go back to whoever gave this this data and ask them to deliver it to you in a more appropriate form. Good luck!

Answer 4

Another possible workaround.
data tmp;
infile '/path/to/textfile';
input tmp :$100.;
array varlst (*) $30 v1-v6;
a=countw(tmp,'|');
do i=1 to dim(varlst);
if i<=2 then
varlst(i) = scan(tmp,i,'|');
else if i>=4 then
varlst(i) = scan(tmp,a-(dim(varlst)-i),'|');
else do j=3 to a-(dim(varlst)-i)-1;
varlst(i)=catx(' ', varlst(i),scan(tmp,j,'|'));
end;
end;
drop tmp a i j;
run;