words.sas

/*<pre><b>
/ Program   : words.sas
/ Version   : 3.2
/ Author    : Roland Rashleigh-Berry (http://www.datasavantconsulting.com/roland/)
/ Date      : 09-Jan-2013
/ Purpose   : Function-style macro to return the number of words in a string
/ SubMacros : none
/ Notes     : You can change the delimiter to other than a space if required.
/ Usage     : %put %words(a b c d e);
/===============================================================================
/ PARAMETERS:
/-------name------- -------------------------description------------------------
/ str               String (pos) UNQUOTED
/ delim=%str( )     Delimeter (defaults to a space)
/===============================================================================
/ AMENDMENT HISTORY:
/ init --date-- mod-id ----------------------description------------------------
/ rrb  13Feb07         "macro called" message added
/ rrb  30Jul07         Header tidy
/ rrb  26Sep08         "countw" used for sas version 9 onwards for v2.0
/ rrb  01Sep09         Use of countw() function discontinued (v3.0)
/ rrb  04May11         Code tidy
/ rrb  02Jan13         Use of %qscan dropped (v3.1)
/ rrb  09Jan13         Use of %qscan reinstated (v3.2)
/===============================================================================
/ This is public domain software. No guarantee as to suitability or accuracy is
/ given or implied. User uses this code entirely at their own risk.
/=============================================================================*/


%macro words(str,delim=%str( ));
  %local i;
  %let i=1;
  %do %while(%length(%qscan(&str,&i,&delim)) GT 0);
    %let i=%eval(&i + 1);
  %end;
%eval(&i - 1)
%mend words;