topic Re: Failure to create numerical macro variables to parse SQL query in SAS Programming

Failure to create numerical macro variables to parse SQL query

abak — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 17:19:54 GMT

Beginner here.

I am trying to create a set of numerical values in a SAS macro with the %let command. The idea is to slice a SQL query that is giving me an overrun error (too much data that goes over the 32GB size limit) into manageable pieces and paste them back together at the end. The code is simple:

%let days2get = 200;

%macro pulldata;
%do i = 1 %to 20;
%let days&i = &i*10;
%put "&&days&i";
%end;
%mend pulldata;
%pulldata

Then the SQL query will include

WHERE gp.gen_date > SYSDATE - &&days&i - 10

AND gp.gen_date < SYSDATE - &days&i

The problem is that the output appears to not be numerical but stored as a character: The output log is:

27 %let days2get = 200;
28
29
30
31 %macro pulldata;
32 %do i = 1 %to 20;
33 %let days&i = &i*10;
34 %put "&&days&i";
35 %end;
36 %mend pulldata;
37 %pulldata

"1*10"
"2*10"
"3*10"
"4*10"
"5*10"
"6*10"
"7*10"
"8*10"
"9*10"
"10*10"
"11*10"
"12*10"
"13*10"
"14*10"
"15*10"
"16*10"
"17*10"
"18*10"
"19*10"
"20*10"

How do I force these to be numerical?

Re: Failure to create numerical macro variables to parse SQL query

novinosrin — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 17:22:04 GMT

Are you after this?

%let days2get = 200;


%macro pulldata;
%do i = 1 %to 20;
%let days&i = %sysevalf(&i*10);/*correction*/
%put "&&days&i";
%end;
%mend pulldata;
%pulldata

Re: Failure to create numerical macro variables to parse SQL query

ballardw — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 17:27:35 GMT

Note: Macro variables are always text. In context of created SAS statements they may be used as, and resolve as, numeric but the actual variable is text.

Re: Failure to create numerical macro variables to parse SQL query

Astounding — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 17:38:23 GMT

The %PUT statement writes out characters in quotes, because you added quotes in the %PUT statement. These are different:

%put "&&days&i";

%put &&days&i;

As was noted, to get math to be computed, you need to apply a function. Easiest:

%let days&i = %eval(&i * 10);