topic Re: how to keep in macro variable in SAS Programming

how to keep in macro variable

thanikondharish — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 07:58:38 GMT

data main;

name='sas communities' ;

run;

how to keep in macro variable every letter of name variable?

Re: how to keep in macro variable

Shmuel — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 09:19:06 GMT

You can set the value of name in a macro variable by:

%lat name = sas communities;

or create it in your step by

data main;
name='sas communities' ;
call symput ('NAME', name);
run;

Anyhow, what to you mean by "every letter of name variable" ?

Please post your target.

Re: how to keep in macro variable

thanikondharish — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 09:22:22 GMT

Every letter in that string

Re: how to keep in macro variable

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 10:43:11 GMT

@thanikondharish wrote:
Every letter in that string

Run @Shmuel's code, and you'll see that it works. Show at least a little initiative on your part, please.

Re: how to keep in macro variable

Shmuel — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 10:53:55 GMT

To assign every letter of the string in a separate macro variable you need a loop:

either:

%macro  mac_name(string);
     %do n=1 %to %length(&string);
             %let L&n = %substr(&string, &n,1);

     %end;
%mend mac_name;
%mac_name(sas comunities);

data _null_;
    name = 'sas comunities';
   
    do n=1 to length(name);
        call symput('L'||n , substr(name,n,1);
    end;
run;

to check results run next code:

%put &L1 &L2 &L3 ... &LX;

Re: how to keep in macro variable

Jagadishkatam — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 13:54:10 GMT

data main;
name="sas communities";
new=compress(name);
do i = 1 to length(new);
var=substr(new,i,1);
output;
end;
run;

proc sql;
select var into: var1 - from main;
quit;


%put &var1 &var2 &var3 &var4;

Re: how to keep in macro variable

thanikondharish — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 13:56:22 GMT

Use %do %substr

Re: how to keep in macro variable

Astounding — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 15:19:03 GMT

You will need to define a macro, since %DO is not allowed outside of a macro. So within a macro:

%let name = sas communities;

%local k next_letter;

%global letter_list;

%let letter_list=;

%do k = 1 %to %length (&name);

%let next_letter = %substr(&name, &k, 1);

%if %index(&name, &next_letter) = 0 %then %let name = &name&next_letter;

%end;

The final value of &LETTER_LIST will be a list of all the letters found in &NAME, with duplicates eliminated.

Why is it that you are trying to use macros? It was only a few weeks ago that you were struggling with basic SAS language questions. It is probably too early to worry about macros. Your time would be better spent learning more SAS skills first. If it appeals to you, I could give you a list of topics to learn.