I have a macro variable, &myvar, but it won't resolve when I try to put it in a data step variable. Why won't it, and what can I do to fix this?
%let myvar=Hello, world;
data _null_;
x='&myvar.';
put x=;
run;
Macro variables in SAS won't resolve when they are in single quotes, '&myvar'. They need to be in double quotes, "&myvar", in order to resolve properly.
If you need to have single quotes and a resolved macro variable, you have a few options, but the simplest is:
%str(%'&myvar.%')
The %' inside of %str will place a single quote character (or apostrophe) in the text string by itself without causing it to be quoted.
data _null_;
x="%str(%'&myvar.%')";
put x=;
run;
or
%let myvar2 = %str(%'&myvar.%');
In SAS 9.4M6 or higher version, you can use %tslit() to achieve the same function.
%let myvar=Hello, world;
data _null_;
x=%tslit(%superq(myvar));
put x=;
run;
%put %tslit(%superq(myvar));
x=Hello, world
'Hello, world'
This is a macro pre-defined in SAS. Here is the documentation about it:
https://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=lebaseutilref&docsetTarget=n1phgnraoodvpln1bm941n44yq7q.htm&docsetVersion=9.4&locale=en
Related
I can't figure out this seemingly trivial problem - expect macro variable to be assigned mpg_city.
%macro test(col=);
%let id = %sysfunc(tranwrd(&col, 'extra_', ''));
%put &id;
%mend test;
%test(col=extra_mpg_city);
Current output is extra_mpg_city.
Arguments listed in a function invoked through %sysfunc are implicitly text and should not be quoted. Placing quotes in a sysfunc invoked function is like nesting quotes in a DATA step invocation.
Try
%let id = %sysfunc(tranwrd(&col, extra_, %str()));
The DATA Step analog is
id = tranwrd("&col", "extra_", "");
Your original code in DATA Step analog (below) should show why the tranwrd did not operate as you expected.
id = tranwrd("&col", "'extra_'", "''");
You don't need the quotes when using string functions with %sysfunc, unless you expect to find them in the input. Try this:
%macro test(col=);
%let id = %sysfunc(tranwrd(&col, extra_, ));
%put &id;
%mend test;
%test(col=extra_mpg_city);
I would like to set a dataset by using a reference to dataset name however Iam getting error message: ERROR: File dataset_name123 does not exist(work.dataset123 does exist) What is wrong?
data _null_;
%let product = 'dataset_name123';
set work.&product nobs = row_no;
put row_no;
put &product;
run;
Member names are not quoted. Remove the quotes from your macro variable. In macro code everything is character so there is no need to add quotes around string literals. The quotes become part of the value of the macro variable.
%let product = dataset_name123;
%put &=product;
data _null_;
set work.&product nobs = row_no;
put row_no;
put "&product";
stop;
run;
If you do include quotes in a dataset reference then SAS will interpret it as the physical name of the dataset file itself. So code like:
data want;
set 'dataset_name123';
run;
would look for a filename 'dataset_name123.sas7bdat' in the current working directory.
It is not a great idea to do a %let statement in a data step. Macrovariables and SAS variables are created differently.
There are two problems in this code. First one is quotes around macrovariable, which after resolution will be used for table name and hence your query fails as table names cannot be in quotes .
second one is put statement for macro variable for macro variable to resolve you need %put.
below is modified code.
data class;
set sashelp.class;
run;
data _null_;
%let product = class;
set work.&product nobs = row_no;
put row_no;
%put &product;
run;
How do I call a macro variable in the from clause of proc sql if I wish to use it in a libname?
Let me show you what I mean:
options nofmterr;
libname FRST "/ecm/retail/mortgage/nbk6kra/LGD/data/frst_201312bkts";
libname HELN "/ecm/retail/mortgage/nbk6kra/LGD/data/heln_201312bkts";
libname HELC "/ecm/retail/mortgage/nbk6kra/LGD/data/helc_201312bkts";
%let pathLGD = /new/mortgage/2014Q4/LGD;
%let prod = FRST;
/**************** Segment calculation **************** Date filter to be consistent with model documentation for segmented tables****************/
%macro Performance(prod);
proc sql;
create table lgd_seg_&prod as
select distinct
SegDT_LGD_2013,
min(ScoreDT_LGD_2013) as min_range,
max(ScoreDT_LGD_2013) as max_range,
count(*) as count,
mean(lgd_ncl_adjusted) as LGD_actual,
mean(ScorePIT_LGD_2013) as LGD_pred_pit_1,
mean(ScoreDT_LGD_2013) as LGD_pred_dt_1
from "&prod."scored;
where coh_asof_yyyymm > 200612
group by 1;
quit;
PROC EXPORT DATA=lgd_seg_&prod._fs
OUTFILE= "&pathLGD./lgd_seg.xlsx"
DBMS=XLSX REPLACE;
SHEET="&prod._lgd_seg_fs";
RUN;
%mend;
%Performance(prod=FRST);
%Performance(prod=HELN);
%Performance(prod=HELC);
So in the "from" clause, the macro is supposed to read FRST.scored, HELN.scored, and HELC.scored respectively. Currently it cannot find the file, and if I were to remove the quotation marks, then it'd become "work.FRSTscored".
I hope I've made this clear. Any input and comment is appreciated.
When you want to follow the the resolved value of a macro variable with an immediate additional character you should escape the macro variable with a full stop (.). For example:
%let start = one;
%put &start.two;
%put &start..two;
%put &startend;
onetwo
one.two
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference STARTEND not resolved.
So your code should read from &prod..scored;.
If you ever need to you can also delay the resolution of a macro variable with double ampersand (&&):
%let end = two;
%let onetwo = three;
%put &&one&end;
%put &&&start&end;
Three
Three
Or:
%let three = inception;
%put &&&&&&&start&end;
inception
Remove quotation marks applied outside the macro variable prod and use two dots after macro variable (one to signify end of macro variable name and second one to specify the table name after the libname reference.
from &prod..scored
In summary, I am struggling to achieve the following:
data _null_;
input x $ 1-50 ;
call symput('problem',x);
cards4;
'this' "is '' my "string"" from 'hell!
;;;;
run;
data _null_;
x="%superQ(problem)";
put x=;
run;
The superq function does a good job of managing the mismatched quotes, however the consecutive quotes ("") were still resolved back to single quotes in variable X.
Is this addressable?
Current result:
x='this' "is '' my "string" from 'hell!
Desired result:
x='this' "is '' my "string"" from 'hell!
The short answer is that you can use SYMGET here:
data _null_;
x=symget("problem");
put x=;
run;
If that is not an option for some reason, provide some more information as to the context. I'll also see if I can point Toby (the SAS-L macro quoting guru) or some of the other folks there here, to see if they have any suggestions for handling this without SYMGET.
From SAS-L, FriedEgg (Matt) posted the following additional solution:
resolve=resolve('%superq(problem)');
He also notes that you can mask it on the way in, if you have control over that:
data _null_;
input x $ 1-50 ;
call symput('problem',quote(x));
cards4;
'this' "is '' my "string"" from 'hell!
;;;;
run;
data _null_;
x=&problem;
put x=;
run;
I have a libname that varies from year to year and I wanted to make a program that automatically adjusts for this. But in order for everything to work I have to have invoke a macro inside of the quoted string in a libname statement. How do I do this?
%macro srvyr;
data work.whatever;
length srvyr $4.;
srvyr = (left(year(date()))-1);
srvyr2 = "'C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\sas\d"||srvyr||"a1'";
run;
%mend;
%srvyr;
/*Everything above sets configures the pathname the way I need it*/
I want to then run this:
libname stuff &srvyr;run;
as if it were
libname stuff 'C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\sas\d2010a1';
run;
How do I do this right?
Does is always have to be the previous year, or do you want to base it on a value in a dataset. You don't need macro to solve this.
The shortest method to get last year is as follows
libname stuff "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\sas\d%eval(%sysfunc(year(%sysfunc(date())))-1)a1";
and if you want to break it up to make it more readable it could be like this
%let lastyear = %eval(%sysfunc(year(%sysfunc(date())))-1);
%let libpath = C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\sas\d&lastyear.a1;
libname stuff "&libpath";
call symput is your friend. Put the following inside the data step, after creating the variable srvyr2:
call symput('srvyr_path', srvyr2);
and then outside the macro,
libname stuff &srvyr_path;