78 SAS Functions by Example, Second Edition Explanation Without the STRIP function, the leading and trailing blanks are maintained in the concatenated string. The STRIP function, as advertised, removed the leading and trailing blanks. The following lines were written to the SAS log: One=ONE Two=TWO Cat_no_strip=: ONE Cat_strip=:ONE-TWO: - TWO : Functions That Compare Strings (Exact and "Fuzzy" Comparisons) Functions in this section enable you to compare strings that are exactly alike (similar except for case) or close (not exact matches). Programmers find this latter group of functions useful in matching names that may be spelled differently in separate files. Function: Purpose: COMPARE To compare two character strings. When used with one or more modifiers, this function can ignore case, remove leading blanks, truncate the longer