topic What is the syntax for using a do loop to dynamically call a macro? in SAS Programming

What is the syntax for using a do loop to dynamically call a macro?

DavidPhillips2 — Thu, 03 May 2018 14:12:41 GMT

What is the syntax for using a do loop to dynamically call a macro? I am trying to select a list and for each item in the list call a macro that accepts one element from the list at a time.

E.g.

proc sql;

select college from school_list;

quit;

for each college;

%body(college);

run;

Re: What is the syntax for using a do loop to dynamically call a macro?

RW9 — Thu, 03 May 2018 14:15:50 GMT

The simplest way is to use a datastep:

data _null_;
  set school_list;
  call execute(cats('%body(',college,');'));
run;

Although in most cases, the really simple method is to use by groups rather than writing macro code.

Re: What is the syntax for using a do loop to dynamically call a macro?

DavidPhillips2 — Thu, 03 May 2018 14:20:46 GMT

In this example what is being sent to the macro? Would it function like:

%body(college1);

%body(college2);

Re: What is the syntax for using a do loop to dynamically call a macro?

RW9 — Thu, 03 May 2018 14:24:49 GMT

It would be whatever you wanted it to be. What call execute does it take a string, and put that string into the execution run after the datastep finishes. Hence anything you can create as a string, be it macro calls, base code anything, can be pushed out. For instance, if you want the word college and an incremental number:

data _null_;
  do i=1 to 2;
    call execute(cats('%body(',put(i,best.),');'));
  end;
run;

Re: What is the syntax for using a do loop to dynamically call a macro?

DavidPhillips2 — Thu, 03 May 2018 14:51:21 GMT

This worked for me.

proc sql;

create table departmentList as
select distinct department from enrollment;
quit;

data _null_;
set departmentList;
call execute(cats('%callStudentBody(',department,');'));
run;