topic Re: Do Loop Over Values in New SAS User

Do Loop Over Values

mauley — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 10:34:16 GMT

Sorry for posting this as I have looked at similar questions but cannot quite understand the method.

I have created a simple query and put this into a macro that I now intend to loop through using a list of values from a variable held in another data set as part of the filter.

%macro pleasehelp(myvalue) lets say myvalue is what will change in each loop through.

myvalue is a list of values stored in another data set.

I want to be able to do ;

%macro my_loop;

%do i=myvalue1 %to myvalue6;

%pleasehelp(&i);

%end;

%mend my_loop;

hope that makes sense and greatly appreciative of responses!

Re: Do Loop Over Values

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 10:55:38 GMT

Use call execute from a pseudo dataset:

data _null_;
input string $;
call execute('%nrstr(%pleasehelp(' !! string !! ')););
datalines;
myvalue1
myvalue2
myvalue3
myvalue4
myvalue5
myvalue6
;

Re: Do Loop Over Values

mauley — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 11:02:28 GMT

thanks - what if my list of values was much greater than 6 and I wanted the solution to be dynamic so I didn't need to enter data lines?

Re: Do Loop Over Values

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 11:23:33 GMT

That many data items will surely be kept in a dataset, so it's the same method. Just use that dataset instead of the datalines.

Re: Do Loop Over Values

Astounding — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 13:18:53 GMT

A more specific answer depends on the structure of the "other data set". Does it contain one observation with a set of variables to feed the macro? Does it contain a set of observations, each with one value to feed to the macro?

Also note, add a closing quote when you use @Kurt_Bremser 's solution:

call execute('%nrstr(%pleasehelp(' !! string !! '));');

Re: Do Loop Over Values

mauley — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 13:22:11 GMT

it is multiple obs with each obs to be fed through the macro 🙂

Re: Do Loop Over Values

Astounding — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 13:28:16 GMT

So when @Kurt_Bremser says to use that data set instead of datalines, here's what that means:

data _null_;
set other_dataset;;
call execute('%nrstr(%pleasehelp(' !! variable_from_other_dataset !! '));');
run;