topic Re: Call a series of macro variables in SAS Programming

Call a series of macro variables

liyongkai800 — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 13:33:08 GMT

Hi folks,

I have some problem to call a series of macro variables from a table.

Say I have a table stored some values, namely:

Table1

x1 x2 x3

5 7 6

I want to use the call symputx function to call all the macro variables at the same time. Basically I am wrting a code like:

Data storedvalue;

Table1;

do i=1 to 3;

call symputx("macroi",xi);

end;

run;

However, it's not working since i is not evaluated. Any idea on this question?

Re: Call a series of macro variables

RW9 — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 13:41:43 GMT

data storedvalue;
  set table1;
  array x{3};
  do i=1 to 3;
    call symputx(cats('macro',put(i,best.)),x{i});
  end;
run;

As you can see you missed a few points, a set statement, an array statement. Plus you need to create string for the macro name, and refer to the array for the value.

I would also advise you to consider why you want to create lots of macro variables, there is likely a better method.

Re: Call a series of macro variables

Amir — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 14:02:16 GMT

Hi,

I came up with an almost identical solution as @RW9:

data have;
   input x1 x2 x3;
   datalines;
5      7      6
;

%let macro1=;
%let macro2=;
%let macro3=;

data _null_;
   set have;

   array x(3);

   do i = 1 to 3;
      call symputx(cats('macro',i),x[i]);
   end;
run;

%put macro1=&macro1;
%put macro2=&macro2;
%put macro3=&macro3;

From the documentation, an advantage of using the cats() function is:

The CATS function removes leading and trailing blanks from numeric arguments after it formats the numeric value with the BESTw. format.

For more details see:

http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/lefunctionsref/63354/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n1e21rr6al5m2nn19r1fat5qxwrt.htm

Regards,

Amir.

Re: Call a series of macro variables

liyongkai800 — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 14:46:04 GMT

Thanks a lot. I want to use those values in the late data step, but I don't know how to call them, that's why I want to store them as macro variables. Is it possible that I have some statement like:
Data want;
set whatever;
/** call the value from stored value**/;
/**calculation here**/;
run;

Re: Call a series of macro variables

RW9 — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 14:58:51 GMT

Depends on the exact problem, the simplest method is just to merge the X row onto any data where you want to use it.