You can use the LENGTH function in SAS to calculate the length of character variables, excluding trailing blanks.

This function uses the following basic syntax:

LENGTH(expression)

where:

• expression: The character string to analyze

The following example shows how to use this function in practice.

Example: Using the LENGTH Function in SAS

Suppose we have the following dataset in SAS:

/*create dataset*/
data original_data;
    input team $1-21 points;
    datalines;
Golden State Warriors 99
Brooklyn Nets         101
Utah Jazz             105
Cleveland Cavs        100
Atlanta Hawks         109
Milwaukee Bucks       98
Miami Heat            93
Houston Rockets       100
Los Angeles Lakers    112
;
run;

/*view dataset*/
proc printdata=original_data;

We can use the LENGTH function to calculate the length of each string in the team column:

/*calculate length of each string in team column*/
data new_data;
    set original_data;
    team_length = length(team);
run;

/*view results*/
proc printdata=new_data;

The new column called team_length displays the length of each string in the team column.

For example:

• The string “Golden State Warriors” has a length of 21.
• The string “Brooklyn Nets” has a length of 13.
• The string “Utah Jazz” has a length of 9.
• The string Cleveland Cavs” has a length of 14.

And so on.

If you would like to calculate the length of a character variable including trailing blanks, use the function instead.

The following tutorials explain how to use other common functions in SAS: