topic Re: Using program name as ods rtf file name: Revisited in SAS Programming

Using program name as ods rtf file name: Revisited

Yoko — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 15:31:59 GMT

When I asked a question about saving an rtf file using program name (https://communities.sas.com/t5/Base-SAS-Programming/Using-program-name-as-ods-rtf-file-name/m-p/410319#M100265), I thought I found a solution.

data _null_;
  tmp="%sysfunc(GetOption(SYSIN))";
  call symput('fname',scan(tmp,2,"]"));
run;

ods rtf file="&fname.";
...

But, later, I found that this program replaced the content of the current program with results in an rtf format. That is, when I click my program (e.g., my_program.sas), it opens as a rtf file of the results.

Is there a way to run my program (e.g., my_program.sas) and automatically create a result file as my_program.rtf without typing 'my_program'?

Thank you!

(I'll check the program and results more carefully this time!)

Yoko

Re: Using program name as ods rtf file name: Revisited

ballardw — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 15:43:35 GMT

Perhaps you need to examine the value that &fname has and then replace the likely .SAS extension with .RTF .

This would most likely be easiest in the data _null_ step by modifying the TMP variable prior to the Call Symput. You may want to consider using call symputx as well. Symputx strips some blank characters that occasionally may cause problems.

Re: Using program name as ods rtf file name: Revisited

Yoko — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 18:26:46 GMT

Hello,

Thank you for your post (and sorry not to respond to your post sooner).

When I replace

ods rtf file="&fname.";

with

ods rtf file="&fname.rtf.";

A file 'temp.sasrtf' was created. This is my result file.

Yes, the program name is 'temp.sas'.

It worked somehow even though extension looks strange! I wish I could just have 'temp.rtf'....

Yoko

Re: Using program name as ods rtf file name: Revisited

Tom — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 20:04:59 GMT

@Yoko wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for your post (and sorry not to respond to your post sooner).

When I replace
ods rtf file="&fname.";
with
ods rtf file="&fname.rtf.";
A file 'temp.sasrtf' was created. This is my result file.

Yes, the program name is 'temp.sas'.

It worked somehow even though extension looks strange! I wish I could just have 'temp.rtf'....

Yoko

The reason the file was created with an extension of 'sasrtf' instead of 'sas.rtf' is that the SAS macro processor used the period after &FNAME as an indication of where the name of the macro variable ended. Without the period SAS would look for a macro variable named FNAMERTF. So if you want to get an actual period in front of rtf you need to have two of them. One to mark the end of the macro variable reference and the other to become part of the file name.

ods rtf file="&fname..rtf.";

Re: Using program name as ods rtf file name: Revisited

Yoko — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 20:12:11 GMT

Hello,

I tried: ods rtf file="&fname..rtf.";

And I got this error message: ERROR: Invalid open mode.

An rtf file was not created.

Strangely, the program went through without an obvious error message, but when I checked the log, I found errors..

Yoko

Re: Using program name as ods rtf file name: Revisited

Tom — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 20:31:29 GMT

Where did you get that message?

Are you trying to write a directory that is read only? Or that already has a file with that name that you cannot delete or overwrite?

Are you running some interactive environment like SAS Display Manger that might try to let you preview RTF files that you created? If so then perhaps it is too dumb to know what to do with a file with two periods in its name? 'test.sas.rtf' That is why I normally try to replace the .sas with the new extension rather than just appending '.rtf'.

The way to test is to run it once with the filename you use hardcoded and see if you can create the error or fix it by using different filenames. Once you know what works then adjust your code to handle it.

Here is some simple code that will take value of macro variable FNAME and replace '.sas' suffix with '.rtf' suffix. If there is no '.sas' suffix then it just adds the '.rtf' to the end.

data _null_;
  length fname $300;
  fname=symget('fname');
  if upcase(scan(fname,-1,'.'))='SAS' then fname=substr(fname,1,length(fname)-4);
  fname =cats(fname,'.rtf');
  call symputx('fname',fname);
run;

Re: Using program name as ods rtf file name: Revisited

Yoko — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 15:54:51 GMT

Hello,

(Sorry for not replying to you sooner)

I got the message 'ERROR: Invalid open mode' right after this line: ods rtf file="&fname..rtf.";

I tried your code you posted last time.

I did not get any error or warning messages. But, after the code, I saw this:

NOTE: Invalid argument to function symget at linne...

fname = .rtf _ERROR_=1 _N_=1

Yoko