SAS trim – Remove All Trailing Blanks from String Variable in Data Step

To remove all trailing blanks from a string variable in a SAS data step, we can use the SAS trim() function.

data k;
    a = 'this is a string with some trailing blanks            ';
    b = trim(a) || "*";
    put b=;
run;

/* Output: */
b=this is a string with some trailing blanks*

When working with datasets which contain string and character variables, removing unwanted blank spaces can save space as well as ensure the data is displayed as desired in our reports.

The SAS trim() function removes trailing blank spaces from our string variables.

You can see how to use the SAS trim() function in a data step to remove blank spaces after the last character in the following SAS code.

data k;
    a = 'this is a string with some trailing blanks            ';
    b = trim(a) || "*";
    put b=;
run;

/* Output: */
b=this is a string with some trailing blanks*

The Difference between trim(), compress(), and strip() in SAS

When working with string variables in SAS, there are a few useful functions for cleaning up whitespace and removing blanks.

Two such functions are the SAS compress() and SAS strip() functions.

The SAS compress() function gives us the ability to remove all blank spaces from a string, and the SAS strip() function removes both leading and trailing blank spaces from a string.

You can see below how each of these string manipulation functions work in the following SAS code:

data k;
    a = '     abc de fghi jkl         mnop     ';
    trim =  "*" || trim(a) || "*";
    comp =  "*" || compress(a) || "*";
    strip =  "*" || strip(a) || "*";
    put trim=;
    put comp=;
    put strip=;
run;

/* Output: */
trim=*     abc de fghi jkl         mnop*
comp=*abcdefghijklmnop*
strip=*abc de fghi jkl         mnop*

Hopefully this article has been beneficial for you to understand how to use the SAS trim() function to remove all trailing blanks from a string variable in a SAS data step.