SAS Macro variable escaping apostrophe in variable name Proc Http - sas

Question

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

Answer 1

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;

Answer 2

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;

Answer 3

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