topic Re: macro program help in New SAS User

macro program help

Sk1_SAS — Fri, 31 May 2019 14:03:32 GMT

Hi Team,

I have a table that sometimes is with records and sometimes no. Ex:

Table name Test:

NAME ID

A A1

Table name Test:

NAME ID

Im trying to do a Macro:

%MACRO TEST;

%IF NOBS > 0 AND %SYSFUNC(EXIST(TEST)) = 1 %THEN %DO;

CODE 1

%END;

%ELSE %DO;

CODE 2

%END;

%MEND;

The problem is that even the table Test is empty or with register, the macro will always execute the code 1.

Do you know why?

Tks a lot!!!

Re: macro program help

PaigeMiller — Fri, 31 May 2019 14:10:45 GMT

%IF NOBS > 0 AND %SYSFUNC(EXIST(TEST)) = 1 %THEN %DO;

This statement doesn't work as you think it will. You probably think NOBS is some number that the macro processor understands, but it is not. NOBS inside this %IF statement is a text string of four letters, the first letter is N, the second letter is O, and so on; and so NOBS is not a number. Macros evaluate text in a certain way, and the text string NOBS is always greater than 0, so code 1 always results.

Perhaps you mean

%IF &NOBS > 0 THEN ...

so if &NOBS contains a number then you could test if that number is > 0, but nowhere have you defined what the value of &NOBS is, so as shown, this wouldn't work either.

You didn't state your objective — is it trying to execute one set of code if data set TEST exists and has more than 0 observations, and execute other code if either TEST doesn't exist or has zero observations?

Re: macro program help

Sk1_SAS — Fri, 31 May 2019 14:14:47 GMT

perfect, thank you

Re: macro program help

data_null__ — Fri, 31 May 2019 14:20:03 GMT

You don't need to know how may obs just some/none.

data _null_;
   if eof then do;
      put 'NOTE: data set or subset has 0 obs';
      *Execute when data has 0 obs.;
      end;
   else do;
      *has obs;
      put 'NOTE: has obs';
      end;
   stop;
   set sashelp.class end=eof; where sex eq 'f';
   run;

Re: macro program help

PaigeMiller — Fri, 31 May 2019 14:27:24 GMT

It appears that the user also wants to test if the data set exists in the first place, hence the %SYSFUNC(EXIST( )), the data step code fails if the data set does not exist.