topic Re: Problem with macro loops in New SAS User

Problem with macro loops

Stanley3 — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 03:33:47 GMT

Hi,

I'm new at macro writing and trying out what I thought should be an easy one. The purpose of the macro is to check that the categorical variables I created from continuous variables are set correctly. This is my code:

%macro check(data=, Cat=, Cont=);
    %let total_cat_vars = %sysfunc(countw(&Cat));
    %let total_cont_vars = %sysfunc(countw(&Cont));
    
    %do i = 1 %to &total_cat_vars;
        %let selected_cat_var = %scan(&Cat, &i);

        proc sort data=&data;
            by &selected_cat_var;
        run;

        %do j = 1 %to &total_cont_vars;
            %let selected_cont_var = %scan(&Cont, &j);

            proc means data=&data n nmiss min max mean median q1 q3;
                var &selected_cont_var;
                by &selected_cat_var;
            run;

        %end; 

    %end; 
%mend;

The problem is that it is running proc means for all of my continuous variables by each of my categorical variables (ie. I want only peso_nac to be ran with low_bw, but not sdg_nac). This can be seen here in the log with the mprint option:

I am not sure how to modify this macro to fix this. Any input is appreciated, thank you!

Re: Problem with macro loops

Tom — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 03:44:58 GMT

Please show the code you used to actually CALL the macro.

Please show the SAS code you want it to produce for that call.

Do you even need a macro to do what you want?

Couldn't you just do it all with one PROC MEANS call?

proc means data=&data n nmiss min max mean median q1 q3;
  ways 1;
  class &cat;
  var &cont ;
run;

Re: Problem with macro loops

PaigeMiller — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 10:25:49 GMT

Agreeing with @Tom

Use one call to PROC MEANS for each data set.

Re: Problem with macro loops

Stanley3 — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 13:32:53 GMT

Thank you! This worked.

Re: Problem with macro loops

Stanley3 — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 13:33:07 GMT

Thank you!