topic Passing concatenated string to macro in New SAS User

Passing concatenated string to macro

Espresso — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:40:19 GMT

I am attempting to concatenate various values to a string: macro variables, number variables, _N_, plain text, even an observation from a dataset. Then pass the sting to a macro.

%macro err_msg(param_msg);
	%put &=param_msg;
%mend err_msg;
data _null_;
	%let TargetYear="2018";
	number = 27;
	msg = cat('Note: The year is ', &TargetYear, ', number is ', number);
	put msg $char.;
	%err_msg(msg);
run;

But this is what I get in the log

24 %let err_msg_init = 1;
25 %let RedTitle= font='Consolas' color=red height=14pt;
26 
27 %macro err_msg(param_msg);
28 %put &=param_msg;
29 %mend err_msg;
30 data _null_;
31 %let TargetYear="2018";
32 number = 27;
33 msg = cat('Note: The year is ', &TargetYear, ', number is ', number);
34 put msg $char.;
35 %err_msg(msg);
PARAM_MSG=msg
36 run;

Note: The year is 2018, number is 27 
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
 real time 0.00 seconds
 cpu time 0.01 seconds

String in blue seems to concat OK, but shown in red, the macro sees "msg"

Thanks in advance.

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

novinosrin — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:35:41 GMT

You are missing semi colon here

number = 27

should be

number = 27;

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

Espresso — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:37:00 GMT

I saw that, thanks a lot fixed, still have the macro not seeing the string.

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

ballardw — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:37:32 GMT

missing ;

30         data _null_;
31         	%let TargetYear="2018";
32         	number = 27         <= should have ;
33         	msg = cat('Note: The year is ', &TargetYear, ', number is ', number);

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

Espresso — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:42:53 GMT

Thanks, fixed and I only have the macro not seeing the string, only the word "msg", shown in red.

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

Espresso — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:45:18 GMT

Seems to be taking msg as just a string instead of passing the actual variable in

%err_msg(msg);

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

novinosrin — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:47:51 GMT

You need call execute or resolve

Lots of examples available online but pretty boring syntax though dealing with concatenation of literals lol

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

novinosrin — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 22:33:36 GMT

I like resolve 🙂


%macro err_msg(param_msg);
	param_msg is  &param_msg;
%mend err_msg;
data _null;
	%let TargetYear="2018";
	number = 27;
	msg = cat('Note: The year is ', &TargetYear, ' number is ', number);
	   	   x=resolve('%err_msg'||'('||msg||')');
put +5 x=;
run;

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

Espresso — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 21:55:01 GMT

Thanks a lot will chew on this, a little slow as newbie.

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

novinosrin — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 22:23:05 GMT

@Espresso My apologies for the laziness on my part. Here you go:


%macro err_msg(param_msg);
	%put &=param_msg;
%mend err_msg;
data _null_;
	%let TargetYear="2018";
	number = 27;
	msg = cat('Note: The year is ', &TargetYear, ' number is ', number);
	   call execute('%err_msg'||'('||left(msg)||')');
run;

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

Astounding — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 02:33:53 GMT

Given what you have gone through so far, here are more important lessons that are more appropriate for a relative newcomer to SAS.

First, macro language statements are not part of a DATA step. Macro language does not recognize DATA step variables. Thus your observation is correct: %err_msg(msg) is treating "msg" as three letters, not as a reference to a variable.

Second, the DATA step is able to transfer a DATA step value to a macro variable. It contains special tools for this purpose, such as:

call symputx('message', msg);

This transfers the value of the DATA step variable MSG to a macro variable named MESSAGE. If you were to include that line in your DATA step, you could add:

%put &=message;

You would have to add this AFTER the DATA step completes running, meaning after the RUN statement that ends the DATA step.

Re: Passing concatenated string to macro

Espresso — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 21:37:36 GMT

Perhaps macro is not the way to go then.

OK, this question is a subset of the bigger purpose I need to accomplish, so I will start a new thread, than you all.