Remove quotes from macro variable LET

[metallon]

Hi SAS Experts,

I am creating a macro variable %LET RepQuarter = '4th (October-December)'; and insert it later on

in my custom ods xml tagset.

        define event EmitMetaMainMessage;
            xdent;
            put "</Metas>" CR;
            put "<main>" CR;
            put "<year>&RepYear" ;
            put "</year>" CR;
            put "<quarter>&RepQuarter" ;
            put "</quarter>" CR;
        end;

But I need it without the quotes'. How can I remove those?

Bye

[RW9]

Hi,

Why have you put quotes on it in the first place?

%LET RepQuarter = 4th (October-December);

Problem solved.  The next question is, why is data in a macro parameter?

[metallon]

Greetings!
Unfortunately the problem is not solved be removing the quotes:

NOTE: Line generated by the macro variable "REPQUARTER".
252 4th (October-December)
__
22
76
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &, *, **, +, ',', -, /, <, <=, <>, =, >, >=, ?, AND, BETWEEN,
CONTAINS, EQ, EQT, GE, GET, GT, GTT, LE, LET, LIKE, LT, LTT, NE, NET, OR, ^=, |, ||, ~=.

ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.

The next question is not really a problem I have. I use the variable at various points in the code.

[metallon]

Hi RW9,

The problem is not solved by removing the quotes.

NOTE: Line generated by the macro variable "REPQUARTER".
252 4th (October-December)
__
22
76
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &, *, **, +, ',', -, /, <, <=, <>, =, >, >=, ?, AND, BETWEEN,
CONTAINS, EQ, EQT, GE, GET, GT, GTT, LE, LET, LIKE, LT, LTT, NE, NET, OR, ^=, |, ||, ~=.

ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.

The second question is not really a problem I have. I just use the macro at various places in the code.

[RW9]

Yes, but then you haven't thought about the data, and the process then have you.  If you need parameters, put them into a dataset, its is far easier to work with.  Datasets are there to work with Data, macro variables are there as find and replace, and as you are seeing in your example, that find and replace fails as you are using it in multiple ways.

[Quentin · Accepted solution]

Agree with @RW9 about not adding the quotes in the first place.  But if you want to remove them, you can use the DEQUOTE function.

1    %LET RepQuarter = '4th (October-December)';
2
3    data _null_;
4      put "<quarter>&RepQuarter" ;
5      put "<quarter>%sysfunc(dequote(&RepQuarter))" ;
6    run;

<quarter>'4th (October-December)'
<quarter>4th (October-December)