topic Re: Macro quoted string syntax (consecutive commas) in SAS Programming

Macro quoted string syntax (consecutive commas)

_Grove_ — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 16:07:58 GMT

What is the function of the double commas (,,) in the code below?

data dm6a;
    set rawdata.dob rawdata.xds(where=(datc^=''));
    length pendtc $19.;
    if datc^= '' then do; %dtc(datc,,pendtc); end;
    else if visdatc ^= '' then do; %dtc(visdatc,,pendtc); end;
    else do; %dtc(visdatc,,pendtc); end;
run;

Re: Macro quoted string syntax (consecutive commas)

Astounding — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 17:07:08 GMT

The commas indicate that when %DTC was defined, it was designed to hold three parameters. When calling the macro, the values supplied are:

1st parameter = datc (or visdatc)

2nd parameter = (null string)

3rd parameter = pendtc

The extra comma holds the parameters in place. Without it, macro language would think that the second parameter should be pendtc