SAS libref not recognized in macro loop - sas

Question

I've run into an odd SAS quirk that I can't figure out - hopefully you can help.
I have a simple macro loop that imports CSV files and for some reason if I use a libref statement in the "out=" part of the import procedure, SAS doesn't recognize the libref as a valid name. But if I use the same libref in a data step, it works just fine.
The specific error it gives is: "ERROR: "TESTDB." is not a valid name."
I'd like to figure this out because I work with pretty big files and want to avoid reading through them more times than is necessary.
Here's the code that works, with some comments in it. I got around the issue by reading in the files, then writing them to permanent SAS datasets in a second step, but ideally I'd like to import the files directly into the "TESTDB" library. Any idea how to get SAS to recognize a libref in the "out=" statement of the import procedure?
libname testdb "C:\SAS test";
%let filepath = C:\SAS test\;
%macro loop(values);
%let count=%sysfunc(countw(&values));
%do i = 1 %to &count;
%let value = %qscan(&values,&i,%str(,));
proc import datafile = "&filepath.&value..csv"
out = &value dbms=csv replace; getnames=yes;
/*"out=testdb.&value" in the line above does not work*/
run;
data testdb.&value; set &value; run;
/*here the libref testdb works fine*/
%end;
%mend;
%loop(%str(test_a,test_b,test_c));
Thanks in advance for your help!
john

Answer 1

Perhaps try:
out=testdb.%unquote(&value)
Sometimes the macro language does not unquote values automatically. With result that the extra quoting characters introduced by a quoting function (%qscan %str %bquote %superq etc) cause problems.

Answer 2

Strange error. I am not able to pin it. My guess is that it has something to do with how the value macro variables are being created. When I moved the value variable creation to a data step and used Call Symputx, it works.
%macro loop(files);
/* Create macro variables for files.*/
data _null_;
count = countw("&files.",",");
call symputx("count",count,"L");
do i = 1 to count;
call symputx(cats("file",i),scan("&files.",i,","),"L");
end;
run;
/* Read and save each CSV as a sas table. */
%do i=1 %to &count.;
proc import datafile = "&filepath.&&file&i...csv"
out = testdb.&&file&i. dbms=csv replace; getnames=yes;
run;
%end;
%mend;
%loop(%str(test_a,test_b));