Question

The variable Address2 contains values such as Piscataway, NJ. Select the statement that extracts and assigns the two-letter state abbreviation to a new variable named State.

a. State=scan(Address2,2);
b. State=scan(Address2,13,2);
c. State=substr(Address2,2);
d. State=substr(Address2,13,2);

Answer 1

Option b correctly utilizes the scan function to extract the two-letter state abbreviation from the Address2 variable. The syntax, scan(Address2,13,2), specifies the starting position and the number of characters to extract, accurately capturing the state code. Options a, c, and d use the substr function, but they fail to correctly identify the state abbreviation due to incorrect starting positions or lengths. So the correct option is b. State=scan(Address2,13,2);

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct statement to extract and assign the two-letter state abbreviation from the variable Address2 is option b. scan(Address2,13,2) is the appropriate function to use in this context. The scan function is used to extract substrings based on a specified delimiter, and in this case, the delimiter is a comma. The first argument,
``Address2`,` is the variable from which the substring is extracted. The second argument, 13, represents the starting position of the substring, which corresponds to the two-letter state abbreviation. The third argument, 2, specifies the length of the substring, which is the two-letter state abbreviation.

In contrast, options a, c, and d are incorrect for different reasons. Option a uses scan but without specifying the starting position and length, which would not correctly isolate the state abbreviation. Option c uses substr but with the incorrect starting position, and option d also uses substr but with both the incorrect starting position and length.

Therefore, option b, State=scan(Address2,13,2), is the accurate choice for extracting the two-letter state abbreviation from the variable Address2.