topic Re: %LET help in New SAS User

%LET help

jeffbezos — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 19:42:34 GMT

Hi, I've assigned two values using %let and wish to use them to select the column 201809 from my table rather than create the value '201809' in my proc sql statement. Here's the code i have so far:

%let billyr = 2018;
%let billmth = 09;

proc sql;

create table test as select prod_cd, &billyr.&billmth. from sometable;

quit;

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Jeff!

Re: %LET help

Cynthia_sas — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 19:45:39 GMT

Hi:
In SAS tables, a column name has to start with a letter or underscore. You cannot have a variable named '201809' if "sometable" is a SAS dataset. Can you show the PROC CONTENTS for WORK.SOMETABLE which shows the EXACT column name that you are trying to build with macro variables?

Cynthia

Re: %LET help

Tom — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 19:50:47 GMT

If you somehow managed to create a variable name that starts with a number then you need use a name literal to reference it.

%let billyr = 2018;
%let billmth = 09;

proc sql;
create table test as
 select prod_cd, "&billyr.&billmth."n as usable_varname
 from sometable
;
quit;

You also need to make sure that VALIDVARNAME option is set to ANY.

Re: %LET help

jeffbezos — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 19:57:14 GMT

Thank you, modified my code to add a character in front of the variable helped fix it. noob move.

@Cynthia_sas wrote:
Hi:
In SAS tables, a column name has to start with a letter or underscore. You cannot have a variable named '201809' if "sometable" is a SAS dataset. Can you show the PROC CONTENTS for WORK.SOMETABLE which shows the EXACT column name that you are trying to build with macro variables?

Cynthia