Which function would you use to remove specific characters from a string?

The correct choice is to use the COMPRESS function when you want to remove specific characters from a string in SAS. The COMPRESS function allows you to specify which characters you want to eliminate, making it highly versatile for string manipulation.

For example, if you have a string that contains unwanted characters like spaces or punctuation, you can use COMPRESS to remove those characters simply by specifying them as an argument. Additionally, it can be utilized to remove multiple characters at once, which is particularly useful when working with strings containing various types of unwanted characters.

In contrast, the TRANWRD function is designed for substituting one substring with another rather than removing specific characters. LOWCASE is used for converting all characters in a string to lowercase, and FIND is primarily utilized for locating the position of a substring within a string. Therefore, these functions do not serve the purpose of directly removing specific characters from a string as COMPRESS does.