I was trying to write this:
%ACTUAL_CAL(CQ_20140203,MINUTE15_group0.csv)
However, it returns an error:
320 MINUTE15_group0.csv
___________________
22
201
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a name,
a quoted string.
I was wondering why did the CQ_20140203 string went through fine while the latter string returned an error? Is is because of the dot? How should I fix it?
Update:
I plan to use the MINUTE15_group0.csv later like this:
%MACRO ACTUAL_CAL(DATE_VAR,fname);
DATA TICKERS_NBBO;
INFILE 'groups/&fname';
INPUT SYMBOL $;
RUN;
%MEND;
Therefore, I think simply surround MINUTE15_group0.csv with quotes won't work, as it will also add quotes to my INFILE path later.
It turns out Joe is correct. I should have surrounded a macro variable with double quotation marks instead of single quotation marks.
The following should be correct:
INFILE "groups/&fname";
Related
SAS says: ERROR: INPUT function requires a character argument.
when I run the following code:
%let fyq0 = 000930 ;
%put &fyq0 ;
proc sql ;
create table check as
select *, input(&fyq0,yymmdd6.) as fyq0
from q ;
quit ;
I tried to have '&fyq0' instead of &fyq0 as the 1st argument for the -input- function as the following:
%let fyq0 = 000930 ;
%put &fyq0 ;
proc sql ;
create table check as
select *, input('&fyq0',yymmdd6.) as fyq0
from q ;
quit ;
Then SAS says: NOTE: Invalid argument to function INPUT. Missing values may be generated. And indeed, variable fyq0 returns a missing value.
I wonder what went wrong with my approaches and what is the correct way to go.
The macro processor just replaces the macro reference with the resolved text and then the generated text is interpreted as text. So when you tried.
input(&fyq0,yymmdd6.)
it was the same as if your code was
input(000930,yymmdd6.)
Even if that did run SAS would first have to convert the number 930 into a character string using the BEST12. format which would result in a string like
' 930'
and the input function would only read 6 of the leading spaces.
The macro processor does not process text inside of single quotes. So the INPUT function could not convert the five character string '&fyq0' to a valid date since the letters and ampersand are not valid digits.
You can use double quote characters to allow SAS to resolve the macro variable reference.
input("&fyq0",yymmdd6.)
Now the macro variable reference will resolve and code generated will be:
input("000930",yymmdd6.)
I am confused about how to read variables names with a period/dot. the process stop on when it reads variable with dot/period;
my csv file looks like this:
here is my code:
what the log indicated:
Some of friends suggest me to change variables name, I did that several times, but the result makes me more frustrated:
If you could try a simpler approach using proc import, it automatically converts dots(.) in a variable name into underscore
proc import datafile="X:\folder\sample.csv"
out=out_ds
dbms=csv
replace;
getnames=yes;
run;
data out_ds1;
set out_ds;
d_private=(private='Yes');
run;
Just fix your program to use valid names for your variables.
The names you use in your SAS code need to be valid SAS names. But they do not have to exactly match the column headers in the text file you are trying to read.
Valid names are from 1 to 32 characters. Start with either underscore or a letter and only include digits, letters or underscores. For example you could use Accept_pct as the variable name for the variable that SAS is showing as being an error.
Enable the extended variable names option. Enclose the variables that have spaces or special characters in quotes with an n, like 'this'n.
options validvarname=any;
data want;
input var1 'var.2'n '3rd var'n;
datalines;
1 2 3
;
run;
I find it good practice to restrict my code to within 80 characters per line. Since SAS ignores white space, this usually isn't a problem. However, I occasionally need to refer to some string which is excessively long.
For example,
filename infile "B:\This\file\path\is\really\long\but\there\is\nothing\I\can\do\about\it\because\it\is\on\a\shared\network\drive\and\I\am\stuck\with\whatever\organization\or\lack\thereof\exists\for\directory\hierarchies\filename.txt";
I can think of two solutions:
1) Insert a carriage return. This however makes the code look quite messy and may unwittingly introduce invisible characters (i.e \r\n) into the string.
filename infile "B:\This\file\path\is\really\long\but\there\is\nothing\
I\can\do\about\it\because\it\is\on\a\shared\network\drive\and\I\am\stuck\
with\whatever\organization\or\lack\thereof\exists\for\directory\hierarchies\
filename.txt";
2) Use macro variables to break the string into several parts.
%let part1 = B:\This\file\path\is\really\long\but\there\is\nothing\;
%let part2 = I\can\do\about\it\because\it\is\on\a\shared\network\drive\and\I\am\stuck\;
%let part3 = with\whatever\organization\or\lack\thereof\exists\for\directory\hierarchies\;
%let part4 = filename.txt;
filename infile "&part1.&part2.&part3.&part4.";
%let path = %sysfunc(pathname(infile));
%put &path;
Ideally, I would like something which allows me to follow the indentation scheme of the rest of the code.
filename infile "B:\This\file\path\is\really\long\but\there\is\nothing\
I\can\do\about\it\because\it\is\on\a\shared\network\drive\and\I\am\stuck\
with\whatever\organization\or\lack\thereof\exists\for\directory\hierarchies\
filename.txt";
A possible solution, at least within the context of this example, would be to bypass a declaration altogether and prompt the use for the input file. This does not appear easy to implement, however.
For this type of situation where the string needs to be used as one token then splitting it into separate macro variables is the best approach.
%let basedir=b:\Main Folder;
%let project=This project\has\many\parts;
%let fname=filename.txt ;
...
infile "&basedir/&project/&fname" ;
Note that SAS is happy to convert your directory delimiters between Unix (/) and Windows (\) style automatically for you.
You could also take advantage of using a fileref to point to a starting point in your directory tree.
filename basedir "&basedir";
...
infile basedir("&project/&fname");
You could also store the path in a text file or dataset and use that to generate the path into a macro variable.
data _null_;
infile 'parameter_file.txt' ;
input filename :$256. ;
call symputx('filename',filename);
run;
...
infile "&filename" ;
Another variation on using macro variable is to use multiple %LET statements to initialize a single macro variable. That way you can break the long string into multiple tokens.
%let fname=B:\This\file\path\is\really\long\but\there\is\nothing;
%let fname=&fname\I\can\do\about\it\because\it\is\on\a\shared\network\drive\and\I\am\stuck;
%let fname=&fname\with\whatever\organization\or\lack\thereof\exists\for\directory\hierarchies;
%let fname=&fname\filename.txt;
Or you could use a DATA step to set your macro variable instead.
data _null_;
call symputx('fname',catx('\'
,'B:\This\file\path\is\really\long\but\there\is\nothing\I\can'
,'do\about\it\because\it\is\on\a\shared\network\drive\and\I\am\stuck'
,'with\whatever\organization\or\lack\thereof\exists\for\directory'
,'hierarchies\filename.txt'
));
run;
For a situation where you need to put a long string in code such as a dataset label or some type of description consider using %cmpres. The function has limits but is useful to keep one inside 80 columns if they can use it. Here, my CR and other adjacent white spaces are being "compressed" in to a single space character.
%macro get_filename(FILEPATH_FILE, FILE)
/DES=%cmpres("returns a file's name, placed into var FILE, removing the
file path from FILEPATH_FILE.");
If you do this a lot, use %SYSFUNC() and COMPRESS() to make a user-defined macro like this:
%macro c(text);
%sysfunc(compress(&text, ,s))
%mend;
filename infile %c("B:\This\file\path\is\really\long\but\there\is\nothing\I\
can\do\about\it\because\it\is\on\a\shared\network\drive\
and\I\am\stuck\with\whatever\organization\or\lack\thereof\
exists\for\directory\hierarchies\and\he\uses\B\as\a\drive\
OMG\who\does\that\filename.txt");
%put %c("B:\This\file\path\is\really\long\but\there\is\nothing\I\
can\do\about\it\because\it\is\on\a\shared\network\drive\
and\I\am\stuck\with\whatever\organization\or\lack\thereof\
exists\for\directory\hierarchies\and\he\uses\B\as\a\drive\
OMG\who\does\that\filename.txt");
Option "s" in the COMPRESS() function removes all whitespace characters.
SAS posts notes on the log, you can ignore them:
NOTE: The quoted string currently being processed has become more than 262 characters long. You might have unbalanced quotation marks.
I have a quick question.
I am learning SAS and have come across the dsd= option.
Does anyone know what this stands for? It might assist in remembering / contextualizing.
Thanks.
Rather than just copy and pasting text from the internet. I'll try to explain it a bit clearer. Like the delimiter DLM=, DSD is an option that you can use in the infile statement.
Suppose a delimiter has been specified with DLM= and we used DSD. If SAS sees two delimiters that are side by side or with only blank space(s) between them, then it would recognize this as a missing value.
For example, if text file dog.txt contains the row:
171,255,,dog
Then,
data test;
infile 'C:\sasdata\dog.txt' DLM=',' DSD;
input A B C D $;
run;
will output:
A B C D
171 255 . dog
Therefore, variable C will be missing denoted by the .. If we had not used DSD, it would return as invalid data.
DSD stands for Delimiter-Sensitive Data.
The DSD (Delimiter-Sensitive Data) in infile statement does three things for you. 1: it ignores delimiters in data values enclosed in quotation marks; 2: it ignores quotation marks as part of your data; 3: it treats two consecutive delimiters in a row as missing value.
Source: easy sas
DSD (delimiter-sensitive data)
specifies that when data values are enclosed in quotation marks,
delimiters within the value are treated as character data. The DSD
option changes how SAS treats delimiters when you use LIST input and
sets the default delimiter to a comma. When you specify DSD, SAS
treats two consecutive delimiters as a missing value and removes
quotation marks from character values.
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lrdict/64316/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a000146932.htm
DSD refers to delimited data files that have delimiters back to back when there is missing data. In the past, programs that created delimited files always put a blank for missing data. Today, however, pc software does not put in blanks, which means that the delimiters are not separated. The DSD option of the INFILE statement tells SAS to watch out for this. Below are examples (using comma delimited values) to illustrated:
Old Way: 5,4, ,2, ,1 ===> INFILE 'file' DLM=',' ... etc
New Way: 5,4,,2,,1 ===> INFILE 'file' DLM=',' DSD ... etc.
Refer
reference
I have a string which looks like this:
"ABAR_VAL", "ACQ_EXPTAX_Y", "ACQ_EXP_TAX", "ADJ_MATHRES2"
And I'd like it to look like this:
ABAR_VAL ACQ_EXPTAX_Y ACQ_EXP_TAX ADJ_MATHRES2
I.e. no apostrophes or commas and single space separated.
What is the cleanest / shortest way to do so in SAS 9.1.3?
Preferably something along the lines of:
call symput ('MyMacroVariable',compress(????,????,????))
Just to be clear, the result needs to be single space separated, devoid of punctuation, and contained in a macro variable.
Here you go..
data test;
var1='"ABAR_VAL", "ACQ_EXPTAX_Y", "ACQ_EXP_TAX", "ADJ_MATHRES2"';
run;
data test2;
set test;
call symput('macrovar',COMPBL( COMPRESS( var1,'",',) ) );
run;
%put ¯ovar;
Is this part of an infile statement or are you indeed wanting to create macro variables that contain these values? If this is part of an infile statement you shouldn't need to do anything if you have the delimiter set properly.
infile foo DLM=',' ;
And yes, you can indeed use the compress function to remove specific characters from a character string, either in a data step or as part of a macro call.
COMPRESS(source<,characters-to-remove>)
Sample Data:
data temp;
input a $;
datalines;
"boo"
"123"
"abc"
;
run;
Resolve issue in a data step (rather than create a macro variable):
data temp2; set temp;
a=compress(a,'"');
run;
Resolve issue whilst generating a macro variable:
data _null_; set temp;
call symput('MyMacroVariable',compress(a,'"'));
run;
%put &MyMacroVariable.;
You'll have to loop through the observations in order to see the compressed values the variable for each record if you use the latter code. :)
To compress multiple blanks into one, use compbl : http://www.technion.ac.il/docs/sas/lgref/z0214211.htm