topic replace the characters in SAS Programming

replace the characters

Liliya95 — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 06:36:34 GMT

I need to replace the characters with others, but when write this, code don't work

%macro example();

%let decodedata=f"eif";
%put decodedata=&decodedata; 
%let decodedata1=%sysfunc(tranwrd(&decodedata,",&quot));
%put decodedata1=&decodedata1;
%mend example;


%example();

and when write

%let decodedata1=%sysfunc(tranwrd(&decodedata,' " ',&quot));

get the original string in response. What's wrong?

Re: replace the characters

andreas_lds — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 07:05:10 GMT

Posting log with options symbolgen mprint and mlogic activated will show what happened.

From the code you posted:

the variable &quot is undefined
in macro-code an empty string is %str( )

Re: replace the characters

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 07:17:44 GMT

Look at the log, the macro fails because of the unbalanced double quote, and the single %let fails because of the undefined symbol quot. Note that " is something that works in HTML, but not as some kind of tag in SAS.

What are you trying to achieve? With complicated replacements involving quotes, I'd do it in a data step with symget() and call symputx(). Using data step functions in data steps is always easier and more transparent.

Re: replace the characters

RW9 — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 07:36:13 GMT

Why are you doing data manipulation in SAS Macro when there is a fully fledged language for such a purpose called base SAS? You are setting yourself up for bad unstable coding.

Re: replace the characters

Astounding — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 10:42:02 GMT

This is untested but should work. Change this:

&decodedata,",

Use this instead:

%bquote(&decodedata),%str(%"),

If it's possible, I do agree with the others that claim you would be well-served by switching to SAS language instead of macro language.