Sepearte First name and last name by using PERL regular expressions

We are using PERL regular expression.

We are using 3 functions prxparse,prxmatch and prxposn.

Prxparse takes regularexpression and retutns a pattern identification number for the compiled regular expression.

Prxmatch takes a pattern identification numbar and character value and return the position where the egularexpression finds a match

prxposn returns a value for captured buffer.   

 
data Names;
   input name  $32.;
   datalines;
Raj Gupta
Sam Mark
Jenny Derak
John Michel
;
run;

data FirstLastNames;
   length first last $ 16;
   keep first last;
   retain re;
   if _N_ = 1 then
      re = prxparse('/(\w+)\s(\w+)/');
   set Names;
   if prxmatch(re, name) then 
      do;
         last = prxposn(re, 1, name);
         first = prxposn(re, 2, name);
      end;
run;