/*****************************************************************************/
/* Title: Concatenation functions in SAS 9.0                                                                                               */
/*                                                                                                                                                              */
/* Goal : Illustrate the new CAT functions.                                                                                                  */
/*                                                                                                                                                               */
/* Note :  CAT  - concatenates character strings without removing leading or    trailing blanks                       */
/*         CATS - concatenates character strings and removes leading  and trailing blanks                               */
/*         CATT - concatenates character strings and removes trailing blanks                                                  */
/*         CATX - concatenates character strings, removes leading and  trailing blanks, and inserts separators  */
/*                                                                           */
/*****************************************************************************/

data test;
  input (x1-x4) ($);
  x5=' 5';
  length new1 $40 new2-new4 $10 ;
  new1=cat(of x1-x5);
  new2=cats(of x1-x5);
  new3=catt(x1,x2,x3,x4,x5);
  new4=catx(',', of x1-x5);
  keep new:;
datalines;
1 2 3 4
5 6 . 8
;

proc print;
run;

/* RESULTS */

Obs                   new1                   new2      new3       new4

 1     1       2       3       4        5    12345    1234 5    1,2,3,4,5
 2     5       6               8        5    5685     568 5     5,6,8,5