1. Parsing: Splitting fields into atomic attributes.
Data Transformation
Parsing:
Splitting fields into atomic attributes.

2. =SUBSTR( string, position<, length>)
Use this when you have a known position for characters.
String: character expression
Position: start position (starts with 1)
Length: number of characters to take (missing takes all to the end)
VAR= ‘ABCDEFG’
NEWVAR= SUBSTR(VAR,2,2)
NEWVAR2= SUBSTR(VAR,4)
NEWVAR= ‘BC’
NEWVAR2= ‘DEFG’

3. SUBSTR(variable, position<,length>) = new-characters
Replaces character value contents. Use this when you know where the replacement starts.
a='KIDNAP';
substr(a,1,3)='CAT';
a: CATNAP
substr(a,4)='TY' ;
a: KIDTY

4. INDEX(source, excerpt)
Searches a character expression for a string of characters. Returns the location (number) where the string begins.
a='ABC.DEF (X=Y)';
b='X=Y';
x=index(a,b);
x: 10
x= index(a,’DEF’);
x: 5

5. Alternative INDEX functions
INDEXC searches for a single character
INDEXW searches for a word:
Syntax
INDEXW(source, excerpt<,delimiter>)

6. Length Returns the length of a character variable
The LENGTH and LENGTHN functions return the same value for non-blank character strings. LENGTH returns a value of 1 for blank character strings, whereas LENGTHN returns a value of 0.
The LENGTH function returns the length of a character string, excluding trailing blanks, whereas the LENGTHC function returns the length of a character string, including trailing blanks. LENGTH always returns a value that is less than or equal to the value returned by LENGTHC.