data test ;

  length period $ 7 ;

  input period ;

cards ;

2005

2005Q1

2005JAN

;;

run ;

proc sql;

  create table qtrs as

    select *

      from test

        where prxmatch("/\d\d\d\d[qQ][1-4]/",period) ;

quit;

proc print data=qtrs ;

run ;

http://jaredprins.squarespace.com/blog/2008/10/7/some-sas-code-snippets.html

You can use regular expressions within SQL. This can be quite powerful in selecting data that matches certain conditions. The following example shows a simple regular expression which selects only quarterly periods from a table containing years, quarters & months.

Use Regular Expressions in Proc SQL

sql

SAS