Can I nest %sysfunc-functions or achieve similar results? - sas

I have the following strings that are used (in different variations) as variable names:
Data variables;
input variable;
datalines;
Exkl_UtgUtl_Flyg
Exkl_UtgUtl_Tag
Exkl_UtgUtl_Farja
Exkl_UtgUtl_Hyrbil
Exkl_UtgUtl_Bo
Exkl_UtgUtl_Aktiv
Exkl_UtgUtl_Annat
;
run;
In order to reference related variables I need to turn variables of the type "Exkl_UtgUtl_Flyg" to variables of the type "UtgUtl_FlygSSEK_Pers" and "UtgUtl_FlygSSEK_PPmedel".I try to do this in the following macro, along with other manipulations:
%macro imputera_saknad_utgift(variabel);
DATA IBIS3_5;
SET IBIS3_5;
if &variabel=1 and %sysfunc(cats(%qsysfunc(TRANWRD(&variabel,'Exkl_','')),SSEK_Pers))=. then
%sysfunc(cats(%qsysfunc(TRANWRD(&variabel,'Exkl_','')),SSEK_Pers))=%sysfunc(cats(%qsysfunc(TRANWRD(&variabel,'Exkl_','')),SSEK_PPmedel));
RUN;
%mend imputera_saknad_utgift;
The documentation stated that %sysfunc can't be nested, but mentioned something about alternating
%sysfunc- and %qsysfunc-functions so I tried that. I then try to execute the code:
data _null_;
set variabler2;
call execute(cats('%imputera_saknad_utgift(',utgifter_inte_missing,')'));
run;
This does not seem to work however. The cats-function seems to have worked, but not the nested TRANWRD-function:
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.11 seconds
cpu time 0.12 seconds
5 + DATA IBIS3_5; SET IBIS3_5; if Exkl_UtgUtl_Bo=1 and Exkl_UtgUtl_BoSSEK_Pers=. then
Exkl_UtgUtl_BoSSEK_Pers=Exkl_UtgUtl_BoSSEK_PPmedel;
How do I make this work? The output should look something like:
DATA IBIS3_5; SET IBIS3_5; if Exkl_UtgUtl_Bo=1 and UtgUtl_BoSSEK_Pers=. then
UtgUtl_BoSSEK_Pers=UtgUtl_BoSSEK_PPmedel;

I don't think your macro variable values have quote characters in them, so this code is not going to work:
%qsysfunc(TRANWRD(&variabel,'Exkl_',''))
Since it is looking to replace the 7 character string 'Exkl_' with just the two character string '', two quotes next to each other.
You probably meant to search for Exkl_ instead. You probably also do not want to use %QSYSFUNC() here since that will preserve the space that TRANWRD() will insert. You could use %SYSFUNC() to avoid having that leading space as part of the value. Or perhaps use the TRANSTRN() function instead since that function, unlike TRANWRD(), can translate to an empty string instead of a single space.
Example:
439 %let variable=Exkl_UtgUtl_Flyg ;
440 %put %qsysfunc(TRANWRD(&variable,'Exkl_','')) ;
Exkl_UtgUtl_Flyg
441 %put %qsysfunc(TRANWRD(&variable,Exkl_,)) ;
UtgUtl_Flyg
442 %put %sysfunc(TRANWRD(&variable,Exkl_,)) ;
UtgUtl_Flyg
443 %put %qsysfunc(TRANSTRN(&variable,Exkl_,)) ;
UtgUtl_Flyg

Related

SAS Macro variable escaping apostrophe in variable name Proc Http

I have been working on this for 3 days now and have tried all I can think of including %str(),%bquote(), translate() and tranwrd() to replace single apostrophe with double apostrophe or %’
The below data step and macro work fine until I hit a last name which contains an apostrophe e.g. O’Brien. I then encounter syntax errors due to un closed left parentheses. The below code I have left what I thought was closest to working with the tranwrd included.
Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.
%macro put_data (object1,id);
Proc http
method=“put”
url=“https://myurl/submissionid/&id”
in=&object1;
Headers “content-type”=“application/json”;
Run;
%mend;
data _null_;
Set work.emp_lis;
call execute(catt(‘%put_data(‘,’%quote(‘’{“data”:{“employeeName”:”’,tranwrd(employeeName,”’’”,”’”),’”}}’’),’,id,’)’));
run;
Craig
There are a wide potential of problems in constructing or passing a json string in SAS macro. Proc JSON will produce valid json (in a file) from data and that file in turn can be specified as the input to be consumed by your web service.
Example:
data have;
length id 8 name $25;
input id& name&;
datalines;
1 Homer Simpson
2 Ned Flanders
3 Shaun O'Connor
4 Tom&Bob
5 'X Æ A-12'
6 Goofy "McDuck"
;
%macro put_data (data,id);
filename jsonfile temp;
proc json out=jsonfile;
export &data.(where=(id=&id));
write values "data";
write open object;
write values "name" name;
write close;
run;
proc http
method="put"
url="https://myurl/submissionid/&id"
in=jsonfile
;
headers "content-type"="application/json";
run;
%mend;
data _null_;
set have;
call execute(cats('%nrstr(%put_data(have,',id,'))'));
run;
I was able to find issue with my code with the tranwrd statement was backwards and it needed to be moved to the proc sql create table statement. I also needed to wrap &object1 in %bquote. This was the final code that worked.
When creating table wrap variables in tranwrd as below.
tranwrd(employeeName, “‘“,”’’”)
% macro put_data (object1,id);
Proc http
method=“put”
url=“https://myurl/submissionid/&id”
in=%bquote(&object1);
Headers “content-type”=“application/json”;
Run;
%mend;
data _null_;
Set work.emp_lis;
call execute(catt(‘%put_data(‘,’%quote(‘’{“data”:{“employeeName”:”’,employeeName,’”}}’’),’,id,’)’));
run;
Just use actual quotes and you won't have to worry about macro quoting at all.
So if your macro looks like this:
%macro put_data(object1,id);
proc http method="put"
url="https://myurl/submissionid/&id"
in=&object1
;
headers "content-type"="application/json";
run;
%mend;
Then the value of OBJECT1 would usually be a quoted string literal or a fileref. (There are actually other forms.) Looks like you are trying to generate a quoted string. So just use the QUOTE() function.
So if your data looks like:
data emp_lis;
input id employeeName $50.;
cards;
1234 O'Brien
4567 Smith
;
Then you can use a data step like this to generate one macro call for each observation.
data _null_;
set emp_lis;
call execute(cats
('%nrstr(%put_data)('
,quote(cats('{"data":{"employeeName":',quote(trim(employeeName)),'}}'))
,',',id
,')'
));
run;
And your SAS log will look something like:
NOTE: CALL EXECUTE generated line.
1 + %put_data("{""data"":{""employeeName"":""O'Brien""}}",1234)
NOTE: PROCEDURE HTTP used (Total process time):
real time 2.46 seconds
cpu time 0.04 seconds
2 + %put_data("{""data"":{""employeeName"":""Smith""}}",4567)
NOTE: PROCEDURE HTTP used (Total process time):
real time 2.46 seconds
cpu time 0.04 seconds

SAS - append string macro variable to data set name

I'm trying to append a string macro variable to a data set name in SAS. I want to create datasets that read something like work.cps2020jan and work.cps2020feb. But that's not what I am getting. My code:
%macro loop(values);
%let count=%sysfunc(countw(&values));
%do i = 1 %to &count;
%let value=%qscan(&values,&i,%str(,));
%put &value;
data work.cps2020&value.;
set "A:\cpsb2020&value" ;
mth = "&value.";
keep
PEMLR
mth
;
run;
%end;
%mend;
%loop(%str(jan,feb));
Running this code results in the following output in the log:
NOTE: There were 138697 observations read from the data set
A:\cpsb2020jan.
NOTE: The data set WORK.CPS2020 has 138697 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: The data set WORK.JAN has 138697 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 4.29 seconds
cpu time 0.20 seconds
feb
NOTE: There were 139248 observations read from the data set
A:\cpsb2020feb.
NOTE: The data set WORK.CPS2020 has 139248 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: The data set WORK.FEB has 139248 observations and 2 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 4.44 seconds
cpu time 0.15 seconds
I don't understand why my macro creates two datasets per loop instead of one dataset per loop called work.cps2020jan and work.cps2020feb. If I change &value. to &i. SAS outputs work.cps20201 and work.cps20202. But that's not what I want.
Any insights?
The %QSCAN macro function will mask it's result with special invisible (non-printable) characters only visible to the macro processor system.
What happened is that
data work.cps2020&value.;
was seen as
data work.cps2020<mask-character><non-masked part of symbol value><mask-character>;
during executor processing, which treated the non-printable mask character as a non-syntax token separator, resulting in a DATA statement listing two output tables.
data work.cps2020 jan;
The positions of mask characters in a macro variable can be observed (in the LOG) using %put _user_, or, the actual symbol contents can be captured from a metadata view such as SASHELP.VMACRO or DICTIONARY.MACRO
Let's simplify your macro and add some logging and symbol capture
%macro loop(values);
%local count i;
%let count=%sysfunc(countw(&values));
%do i = 1 %to &count;
%let value=%qscan(&values,&i,%str(,));
%put _user_; %*--- log them masks;
data x&i; %* --- symbol capture;
set sashelp.vmacro;
where name like '%VALUE%';
value_hex = put (value,$HEX40.);
run;
%* --- do the step that creates two tables;
data work.cps2020&value.;
set sashelp.class;
run;
%end;
%mend;
options nomprint nosymbolgen nomlogic;
%loop(%str(jan,feb));
proc print data=x1 noobs style(data)=[fontsize=14pt fontfamily="Courier"];
var value:;
run;
LOG snippet, those little boxes are the special invisible masking characters (I am showing them in image captures because stack overflow / html won't show non-printable characters)
Same LOG text, copy and pasted into Notepad2 show the mask characters as control characters
The Proc PRINT of the captured macro symbol data will expose the hexadecimal masking characters
06 macro %quote start
08 macro %quote end
01 macro %str start
02 macro %str end
1E masked version of comma
&value is returned as quoted by %qscan(). Use %scan() instead. Quoted macro variables can sometimes cause issues on resolution when they're used in this way. It's best to only quote them when needed, such as in a %put statement that has a % sign within it.
You don't need %qscan(). If the value contained any characters that need macro quoting then they would be invalid for use in a member name anyway. So use %scan() instead.
But when used inside of a macro the tokenizer will sometimes mistakenly see things like xxx&mvar as two tokens even when there are no special characters in &mvar. You can group the value you are generating to work around that.
For example by making a new macro variable
%let dsn=cps2020&value.;
data work.&dsn. ;
Or use the %unquote() function:
data %unquote(work.cps2020&value.);
Or use a name literal:
data work."cps2020&value."n;

macro variable is uninitialized after %let statement in sas

I want to create something in SAS that works like an Excel lookup function. Basically, I set the values for macro variables var1, var2, ... and I want to find their index number according to the ref table. But I get the following messages in the data step.
NOTE: Variable A is uninitialized.
NOTE: Variable B is uninitialized.
NOTE: Variable NULL is uninitialized.
When I print the variables &num1,&num2, I get nothing. Here is my code.
data ref;
input index varname $;
datalines;
0 NULL
1 A
2 B
3 C
;
run;
%let var1=A;
%let var2=B;
%let var3=NULL;
data temp;
set ref;
if varname=&var1 then call symput('num1',trim(left(index)));
if varname=&var2 then call symput('num2',trim(left(index)));
if varname=&var3 then call symput('num3',trim(left(index)));
run;
%put &num1;
%put &num2;
%put &num3;
I can get the correct values for &num1,&num2,.. if I type varname='A' in the if-then statement. And if I subsequently change the statement back to varname=&var1, I can still get the required output. But why is it so? I don't want to input the actual string value and then change it back to macro variable to get the result everytime.
Solution to immediate problem
You need to wrap your macro variables in double quotes if you want SAS to treat them as string constants. Otherwise, it will treat them the same way as any other random bits of text it finds in your data step.
Alternatively, you could re-define the macro vars to include the quotes.
As a further option, you could use the symget or resolve functions, but these are not usually needed unless you want to create a macro variable and use it again within the same data step. If you use them as a replacement for double quotes they tend to use a lot more CPU as they will evaluate the macro vars once per row by default - normally, macro vars are evaluated just once, at compile time, before your code executes.
A better approach?
For the sort of lookup you're doing, you actually don't need to use a dataset at all - you can instead define a custom format, which gives you much more flexibility in how you can use it. E.g. this creates a format called lookup:
proc format;
value lookup
1 = 'A'
2 = 'B'
3 = 'C'
other = '#N/A' /*Since this is what vlookup would do :) */
;
run;
Then you can use the format like so:
%let testvar = 1;
%let testvar_lookup = %sysfunc(putn(&testvar, lookup.));
Or in a data step:
data _null_;
var1 = 1;
format var1 lookup.;
put var1=;
run;

How to combine text and numbers in catx statement

The variable upc is already defined in my cool dataset. How do I convert it to a macro variable? I am trying to combine both text and numbers. For example blah should equal upc=123;
data cool;
set cool;
blah = catx("","upc=&upc","ccc")
run;
If upc is a numeric variable and you just want to include its value into some character string then you don't need to do anything special. Concatenation function will convert it into character before concatenating automatically:
data cool;
blah = catx("","upc=",upc,"ccc");
run;
The result:
upc----blah
123 upc= 123ccc
BTW, if you want to concatenate strings without blanks between them, you can use function CATS(), which strips all leading and trailing spaces from each argument.
The following test code works for my SAS 9.3 x64 PC.
Please note that:
1.symputx() provide the connection between dataset and macro variables.
2.cats() will be more appropriate than catx() if delimiting characters are not needed.
3.If you did not attempt to create a new data set, data _NULL_ is fine.
You can check the log to see that the correct values are being assigned.
Bill
data a;
input ID $ x y ##;
datalines;
A 1 10 A 2 20 A 3 30
;
run;
options SymbolGen MPrint MLogic MExecNote MCompileNote=all;
data _NULL_;
set a;
call symputx(cats("blah",_N_),cats(ID,x),"G");
run;
%put blah1=&blah1;
%put blah2=&blah2;
%put blah3=&blah3;

Categorical variables with macro

I am trying to create categorical variables in sas. I have written the following macro, but I get an error: "Invalid symbolic variable name xxx" when I try to run. I am not sure this is even the correct way to accomplish my goal.
Here is my code:
%macro addvars;
proc sql noprint;
select distinct coverageid
into :coverageid1 - :coverageid9999999
from save.test;
%do i=1 %to &sqlobs;
%let n=coverageid&i;
%let v=%superq(&n);
%let f=coverageid_&v;
%put &f;
data save.test;
set save.test;
%if coverageid eq %superq(&v)
%then &f=1;
%else &f=0;
run;
%end;
%mend addvars;
%addvars;
You're combining macro code with data step code in a way that isn't correct. %if = macro language, meaning you are actually evaluating whether the text "coverageid" is equal to the text that %superq(&v) evaluates to, not whether the contents of the coverageid variable equal the value in &v. You could just convert %if to if, but even if you got that to work properly it would be hideously inefficient (you're rewriting the dataset N times, so if you have 1500 values for coverageID you rewrite the entire 500MB dataset or whatnot 1500 times, instead of just once).
If what you want to do is take the variable 'coverageid' and convert it to a set of variables that consist of all possible values of coverageid, 1/0 binary, for each, there are a nubmer of ways to do it. I'm fairly sure the ETS module has a procedure that just does this, but I don't recall it off the top of my head - if you were to post this to the SAS mailing list, one of the guys there would undoubtedly have it quickly.
The simple way for me, is to do this with entirely datastep code. First determine how many potential values there are for COVERAGEID, then assign each to a direct value, then assign the value to the correct variable.
If the COVERAGEID values are consecutive (ie, 1 to some number, no skips, or you don't mind skipping) then this is easy - set up an array and iterate over it. I will assume they are NOT consecutive.
*First, get the distinct values of coverageID. There are a dozen ways to do this, this works as well as any;
proc freq data=save.test;
tables coverageid/out=coverage_values(keep=coverageid);
run;
*Then save them into a format. This converts each value to a consecutive number (so the lowest value becomes 1, the next lowest 2, etc.) This is not only useful for this step, but it can be useful in the future in converting back.;
data coverage_values_fmt;
set coverage_values;
start=coverageid;
label=_n_;
fmtname='COVERAGEF';
type='i';
call symputx('CoverageCount',_n_);
run;
*Import the created format;
proc format cntlin=coverage_values_fmt;
quit;
*Now use the created format. If you had already-consecutive values, you could skip to this step and skip the input statement - just use the value itself;
data save.test_fin;
set save.test;
array coverageids coverageid1-coverageid&coveragecount.;
do _t = 1 to &coveragecount.;
if input(coverageid,COVERAGEF.) = _t then coverageids[_t]=1;
else coverageids[_t]=0;
end;
drop _t;
run;
Here's another way that doesn't use formats, and may be easier to follow.
First, just make some test data:
data test;
input coverageid ##;
cards;
3 27 99 105
;
run;
Next, create a data set with no observations but one variable for each level of coverageid. Note that this approach allows arbitrary values here.
proc transpose data=test out=wide(drop=_name_);
id coverageid;
run;
Finally, create a new data set that combines the initial data set and the wide one. Then, for each level of x, look at each categorical variable and decide whether to turn it "on".
data want;
set test wide;
array vars{*} _:;
do i=1 to dim(vars);
vars{i} = (coverageid = substr(vname(vars{i}),2,1));
end;
drop i;
run;
The line
vars{i} = (coverageid = substr(vname(vars{i}),2));
may require more explanation. vname returns the name of the variable, and since we didn't specify a prefix in proc transpose, all variables are named something like _1, _2, etc. So we take the substring of the variable name that starts in the second position, and compare it to coverageid; if they're the same, we set the variable to 1; otherwise it evaluates to 0.