What does the COMPRESS function return?

The COMPRESS function in SAS is specifically designed to remove specified characters from a character string. This function allows for flexibility, enabling the user to define a list of unwanted characters that should be stripped out of the input string. For example, if the input string is "SAS Programming!" and the specified characters to compress are " !" (space and exclamation), the result would be "SASProgramming".

By removing only the specified characters and returning the modified string, the COMPRESS function effectively cleans up data for further processing or analysis. This functionality is important in data cleaning processes where unwanted characters may interfere with proper data usage. Each character removal is based solely on user-defined criteria, making the COMPRESS function a powerful tool for string manipulation in SAS.