topic Re: macro failure due to hyphen? (directory creation) in SAS Programming

macro failure due to hyphen? (directory creation)

desertsp — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 16:30:49 GMT

I'm using a macro I found online to create Windows directories on my local disk. It's failing if the directory name contains hyphens.

Can explain what is going on?

Here's the problematic code (source)

%MACRO makeDirectory(DIR=);
  %LET COUNT=0;
  %LET DLM=\;

  %IF %SUBSTR(&DIR,%LENGTH(&DIR),1) NE &DLM %THEN %DO;
    %LET DIR=&DIR&DLM;
                                                  %END;
  %DO J=1 %TO %LENGTH(&DIR);
    %IF %SUBSTR(&DIR,&J,1)=&DLM %THEN %DO;
      %LET COUNT=%EVAL(&COUNT+1);
                                      %END; 
  %END;

  %LET DRIVE=%SUBSTR(&DIR,1,3);
  %LET LEVEL=&DRIVE;

  %DO I=2 %TO &COUNT;
    %LET WORD=%SCAN(&DIR,&I,&DLM);
    %LET LNEW=&LEVEL&WORD&DLM;
    data _null_;
    rc=filename('newdir',"&lnew");
      c=dopen('newdir');
      if c=0 then new=dcreate("&word","&level");
    run;
    %LET LEVEL=&LNEW;
  %END;
%MEND;	

  /* this will fail */
%makeDirectory(Dir=C:\TEMP\WITH-HYPHENS);

Here's the error from the log:

SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable DIR resolves to C:\TEMP\WITH-HYPHEN\
SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable J resolves to 13
ERROR: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric
       operand is required. The condition was: %SUBSTR(&DIR,&J,1)=&DLM
SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable DLM resolves to \
ERROR: The macro MAKEDIRECTORY will stop executing.

Thanks!

Re: macro failure due to hyphen? (directory creation)

Reeza — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 16:55:02 GMT

Any reason not to use the DCREATE() function directly?

http://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=lefunctionsref&docsetTarget=p1aj29pf4cxnirn15q5hmf0tv438.htm&docsetVersion=9.4&locale=ja

data _null_;
rc=dcreate("With-Hyphens", "C:\_localdata\temp\");
put rc;
run;

Or try the method here:
https://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/2013/07/02/use-dlcreatedir-to-create-folders/

Re: macro failure due to hyphen? (directory creation)

PaigeMiller — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 17:11:38 GMT

%IF %QSUBSTR(&DIR,%LENGTH(&DIR),1) NE &DLM %THEN %DO;

But yes, I agree with @Reeza, this is a lot of work to write such a macro when you can use a built-in function to do the same thing.

Re: macro failure due to hyphen? (directory creation)

desertsp — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 17:16:36 GMT

Thank you for replying.

I'm not using DCREATE() directly because it requires that the parent directory already exists. The macro I found is iteratively creates parent directories as needed. I -think- the error is occurring in the "J loop", so I don't believe there's any problem with the actual creation of each directory (maybe I should have simplified my macro before posting!).

I did consider OPTIONS DLCREATEDIR however there's the risk that that option is disabled. If not for that consideration, the approach would be ideal.

Re: macro failure due to hyphen? (directory creation)

desertsp — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 17:18:34 GMT

That does the trick, thanks!