topic Using numeric macro variable within character values in SAS Programming

Using numeric macro variable within character values

DavyJones — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:49:06 GMT

Hi,

I have several datasets named like file_1, file_2, ..., file_20. I need to define a variable named model in each dataset with the value of model_i, in which i represents the number associated with each file. For example, I need to have model=model_1; in file_1 dataset.

I tried the following code, but it doesn't work.

%macro modeltype;

%do i=1 %to 20;

data file_&i;

set file_&i;

model="model_&i";

run;

%end;

%mend;

%modeltype;

I appreciate any suggestion to fix this code.

Thanks.

Re: Using numeric macro variable within character values

Astounding — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:56:58 GMT

With a small change your code should be fine. Add this line before the SET statement:

length model $ 8;

That way, if you ever combine the files, you will have MODEL defined the same way in all files.

Now you didn't really say with "didn't work" means. So if there's some other problem, you might have to provide a detail or two. For example, perhaps MODEL already exists in the incoming files, possibly as a numeric variable.

Re: Using numeric macro variable within character values

DavyJones — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 18:11:27 GMT

Thanks. After specifying the length, the variable was properly defined.