What is the purpose of the SUBSTR function in SAS?

The SUBSTR function in SAS is specifically designed to extract a subset of a string based on given starting position and length parameters. When using SUBSTR, you can specify a string from which to extract characters, the position where the extraction should begin, and the number of characters to extract. This is essential for data manipulation and string processing, enabling you to pull specific parts of a larger string for analysis or reporting.

For instance, if you have a variable that contains full names and you only want to extract the first name, you can utilize the SUBSTR function to target the relevant section of the string. This capability makes the SUBSTR function a powerful tool in data management and transformation within SAS.