topic Re: Looping through macro variable in ODS and Base Reporting

Looping through macro variable

deleted_user — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:13:46 GMT

Hi.
I am trying to loop through a macro variable and a field in a datastep, but am struggling with the coding.

This code shows what I would like to do:

%Let adjust0904 = 1.1;
%Let adjust0905 = 1.2;
%Let adjust0906 = 1.3;

DATA survey;
INPUT id mass0904 mass0905 mass0906 height0904 height0905 height0906;
DATALINES;
1 55 56 57 1.7 1.72 1.75
2 90 88 90 1.8 1.8 1.8
3 55 57 60 1.6 1.6 1.6
;
PROC PRINT; RUN;

Data B;
Set A;

Do i = '0904', '0905', '0906';
If mass&i > 85 Then BMI&i = mass&i * height&i * &adjust&i;
* code should read: If mass0904 > 85 Then BMI0904 = mass0904 * height0904 * &adjust0904;
End;

Run;

I realise that there are fundamental flaws with this code (e.g. using "i" as a macro variable), but I hope it shows what I would like to do. Any suggestions / solutions would be appreciated.
Thanks very much
Robin

Re: Looping through macro variable

sbb — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:21:33 GMT

You are mixing SAS MACRO language processing with DATA step code. Your DO I=... statement must change to be a %DO;; %END; which will compile SAS DATA step code to be executed. Also, your DO (s/b %DO) construct is not valid and so you must find a suitable alternative to parse your macro variable using %LET assignment stmt and %SCAN macro function into a sub-field macro variable which you would reference in your code instead of the &I macro variable.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

SAS Macro Language Reference: Intro to Macro Facility
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/mcrolref/61885/HTML/default/a002293969.htm

SAS Macro Programming for Beginners
Susan J. Slaughter, Avocet Solutions, Davis, CA
Lora D. Delwiche, Delwiche Consulting, Winters, CA
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi29/243-29.pdf

Re: Looping through macro variable

Cynthia_sas — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:44:21 GMT

Hi:
In addition to Scott's comments, it occurs to me that you may only need a simple array in order to perform repetitive calculations and not a SAS macro %DO loop at all. Something like this:
[pre]
array ms mass0904-mass0906;
array ht height0904-height0906;
array bmi bmi0904-bmi0906;
array aj adjust0904-adjust0906;
do i = 1 to 3 by 1;
if ms(i) gt 85 then bmi(i) = ms(i) * ht(i) *aj(i);
end;
[/pre]

Refer to this paper for an example of using a simple array -- Example 1.
http://support.sas.com/rnd/papers/sgf07/arrays1780.pdf

cynthia

Re: Looping through macro variable

deleted_user — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:02:02 GMT

That is great, thanks! The only thing is - can you pass the macro variable adjust090x to an array in the datastep? Have tried a simple "array aj &adjust0904 - &adjust0906;" but SAS does not like this.
Cheers
Robin

Re: Looping through macro variable

Cynthia_sas — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:16:27 GMT

Hi:
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by:
pass the macro variable adjust090x to an array in a datastep

are you saying that you have %let statements, such as:
%let adj0904 = 4.5;
%let adj0905 = 5.5;
%let adj0906 = 6.5;
(or some other process that creates these macro variables...)

and then you want to reference those macro values as -though- they were in a data step array. Yes, you can. Look at the set up for a _TEMPORARY_ array in that paper (in Example 2). A temporary array contains a list of "constants", in your case, numeric constants and one way of creating the temporary array would be to hard-code the values. Another way would be to use macro variables.
[pre]
array aj{3} _temporary_ (4.5, 5.5, 6.5);

could also be defined as:

array aj{3} _temporary_ (&adj0904, &adj0905, &adj0906);
(assuming that the 3 macro variables used above all have values before the data step program starts processing.)
[/pre]

You could get more complex in the SAS macro program, however, it is better to start simple and get a working program and correct logic, before you go to town with fancy macro processing.

cynthia

Re: Looping through macro variable

deleted_user — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:23:36 GMT

Cynthia, I think you have hit the jackpot!! It works perfectly on my small example, but will try it on the main program. Thanks to you guys for your help!
Cheers
Robin