topic assign value to macro in SAS Programming

assign value to macro

markc — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 05:27:32 GMT

Hello,

How do I assign a macro variable a value of a variable?

I want to make 'macro_variable' contain the value of a non macro variable.

In other words, if a variable value is 'ABC123' then I want the macro_variable to contain 'ABC123'.

So like:

%let macro_variable = the value stored within (variable);

Because I then want to be able to create new variables called:

case_&macro_variable

which would resolve to a variable called case_ABC123 which I can then in turn assign values to.

Regards,

Mark

Re: assign value to macro

andreas_lds — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 05:48:17 GMT

Can you post example data of what you have and what you want as result?

In a data-step you can use call symputx('macro_variable', value), but be aware that you will only get value of the last observation. And, if you want to use a value as variable name, you have to check whether that value (including the prefix "case_") is still a valid variable name.

Re: assign value to macro

Shmuel — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 05:50:25 GMT

Use function symput to assign a variable data into a macro variable:

call symput('<macro_var_name' , <variable_name>);

there are also functions symputx and symputn wit similar sytax, to assign CHAR or NUM type variable.

check documentation.

Re: assign value to macro

Quentin — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 10:51:21 GMT

I read @Shmuel's answer and thought "symputn, what the heck is that?" After 5 minutes of googling, turns out it's only valid for SCL programs, not DATA step programs. But it's a good reminder to me to keep rereading the documentation with each release. It's always possible you'll discover something that's been there for years...

Re: assign value to macro

ballardw — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 15:59:13 GMT

@Quentin wrote:

I read @Shmuel's answer and thought "symputn, what the heck is that?" After 5 minutes of googling, turns out it's only valid for SCL programs, not DATA step programs. But it's a good reminder to me to keep rereading the documentation with each release. It's always possible you'll discover something that's been there for years...

Or migrated from one area to another.