How to Use the LEFT Function in SAS (With Example)

You can use the LEFT function in SAS to left-align character strings.

The LEFT function moves any leading blanks to the end of the string, which has the effect of left-aligning text without actually changing the length of the string.

The following example shows how to use the LEFT function in practice.

Example: How to Use LEFT Function in SAS

Suppose we have the following dataset in SAS that contains the names of various basketball teams:

/*create first dataset*/
data my_data;
    input team $char20.;
    datalines;
   Mavericks
Kings
 Hawks
      Thunder
    Rockets
Blazers
 Nets
;
run;

/*view dataset*/
proc report data=my_data;
    define team / display style=[asis=on];
run;

Note: We used PROC REPORT with the option DISPLAY STYLE=[ASIS=ON] to force SAS to display blanks in the output.

Notice that some of the team names have multiple leading blanks.

We can create a new dataset in which we use the LEFT function to move each of the leading blanks in each team name to the end of the string:

/*create new dataset*/
data new_data;
    set my_data;
    team_left = left(team);
run;

/*view new dataset*/
proc report data=new_data;
    define team / display style=[asis=on];
run;