topic Re: How do you insert a blank line or a blank page for each macro result to the output window in UNI in New SAS User

How do you insert a blank line or a blank page for each macro result to the output window in UNIX?

cosmid — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 19:08:25 GMT

I have the following code:

data sample1;
  input a;
datalines;
1
2
3
run;

data sample2;
  input b;
datalines;
1
2
3
run;

data sample3;
  input c;
datalines;
1
2
3
run;


%macro print_sample(input_data);
  proc print data=&input_data;
  run;
%mend print_sample;

%print_sample(sample1);
%print_sample(sample2);
%print_sample(sample3);

As you can see, I just printed the 3 sample data. However, the result showing in UNIX is as follows:

                                                            The SAS System                            15:01 Tuesday, June 8, 2021   1

                                                              Obs    a

                                                               1     1
                                                               2     2
                                                               3     3
^L                                                           The SAS System                            15:01 Tuesday, June 8, 2021   2

                                                              Obs    b

                                                               1     1
                                                               2     2
                                                               3     3
^L                                                           The SAS System                            15:01 Tuesday, June 8, 2021   3

                                                              Obs    c

                                                               1     1
                                                               2     2
                                                               3     3

"The SAS System" for 2nd and 3rd result is right below the result of the first macro's result. Is there a way to insert a blank line in between the results or add a blank page?

I asked this before but didn't get a solution because I didn't provide any code and my question wasn't very clear. Please let me know if this is clear for what the objective is. Thank you for your help!

Re: How do you insert a blank line or a blank page for each macro result to the output window in UNI

cosmid — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 19:09:26 GMT

Also, how do you remove the ^L in the output? What's creating it?

Re: How do you insert a blank line or a blank page for each macro result to the output window in UNI

Tom — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 19:15:18 GMT

This has nothing to do with the macro processor.

There are already "blank lines" between the outputs. In fact each proc's output is starting on its own page. That is what the FORMFEED ('0C'x) character means.

Re: How do you insert a blank line or a blank page for each macro result to the output window in UNI

Reeza — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 20:25:14 GMT

Who still uses listing output? Usually PDF, Word, Excel or HTML are standard these days.

Try adding blank title or footnote statements to add extra space, it's probably the quickest fix.

title ' ';
footnote ' ';

Example:

https://communities.sas.com/t5/New-SAS-User/Add-spaces-in-listing-file/td-p/592853

Re: How do you insert a blank line or a blank page for each macro result to the output window in UNI

ballardw — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 20:42:06 GMT

@Tom wrote:

This has nothing to do with the macro processor.

There are already "blank lines" between the outputs. In fact each proc's output is starting on its own page. That is what the FORMFEED ('0C'x) character means.

Ah! The joys of trying to remember things like FORTRAN Carriage Control (or not) characters.

Makes me a tad nostalgic for the "not quite so good old days". 🤣

Re: How do you insert a blank line or a blank page for each macro result to the output window in UNI

cosmid — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 18:45:23 GMT

Hi Reeza, that's actually what I am doing right now to fix the issue. I thought there's a better way of doing it. My code runs on UNIX:( And I just wanted to see if there's a way to separate out each result. Thanks for the help:)

Re: How do you insert a blank line or a blank page for each macro result to the output window in UNI

cosmid — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 18:46:35 GMT

In SAS studio's output, they do start on a new page. But in UNIX, the result are glued to each other. So that's why I was trying to see if there's a way to fix it.