topic Re: Pass Character Parameter Dynamically to a Macro in SAS Programming

Pass Character Parameter Dynamically to a Macro

SteelersPitts — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 17:09:49 GMT

I'm trying to pass file name to a macro. The macro runs once a month, therefore, I'm trying to store the output file with a month prefix. In the current code someone has to manually provide a file name every month (Sep17_Sales, Oct17_Sales etc.). I want to automate this so that SAS generates files with the name of the month prefixed to the data file.

Macro:

%macro sales (outdata = , dt =);

Current Code

%Sales(Outdata = Sep17_Sales, dt = '2017-09-01');

%Sales(Outdata =Oct17_Sales, dt ='2017-10-01');

My approach:

data _null_;

current_date = today();

current_month = intnx('month', current_date, 0, "Beginning");

Name = "_Sales";

Result = put(current_month, monyy7.) || name;

run;

%Sales(Outdata=Result, dt='2017-10-01');

When I try to pass the parameter, it throws error. I tried changing Result to %Let Result and pass a reference &Result to the macro but it also fails.

Any suggestion how to solve this? Thank you for all the help!!

Re: Pass Character Parameter Dynamically to a Macro

RW9 — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 17:06:15 GMT

Well beginning is spelt incorrectly to start with.

Anyways, in your macro can you not just do:

filename "<pathtofile>\%sysfunc(put(month(today(),monname3.)))_rest_of_name.txt";

Re: Pass Character Parameter Dynamically to a Macro

Astounding — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 17:18:32 GMT

You've gotten most of the way there. But as you have seen, macro calls do not use DATA step variables. Here is a way to bridge that gap.

First, finish your DATA step with:

Result = put(current_month, monyy7.) || name;

call symputx('result_value', result);

run;

Then call the macro with:

%Sales(Outdata=&result_value, dt='2017-10-01')

There are many ways to get to that same end result. This one utilizes what you have done so far, while making very few changes.

Note that it might be possible to automatically generate the second parameter in similar fashion.

Re: Pass Character Parameter Dynamically to a Macro

SteelersPitts — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 18:25:51 GMT

You're a rockstar! Thanks!