topic Re: DDE : using macro variables inside put statement in SAS Programming

DDE : using macro variables inside put statement

AlexeyS — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 08:47:31 GMT

Hello guys, I want to use macro variables inside the put statement. When I use numbers it works perfectly, but when I replace numbers with macro variables, it doesn't work.

filename DDEcmds dde 'excel|system';

data _null_;
file DDEcmds;
put '[select("R2C%sysevalf(&id+3):R100C%sysevalf(&id+3)")]';
put '[Format.Number("#,##0")]';
run;

Re: DDE : using macro variables inside put statement

DanielLangley — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 08:54:00 GMT

Macro Variables don't resolve if they are within single quotes.

Re: DDE : using macro variables inside put statement

RW9 — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 08:54:46 GMT

You are not resolving the macro code. To resolve macro code it needs to be within double quotes:

'[select("R2C%sysevalf(&id+3):R100C%sysevalf(&id+3)")]';

The double quotes here are within single quotes, therefore part of the text. Maybe something like.

data _null_;
  file DDEcmds;
  str=cats('[select(',"R2C%sysevalf(&id+3):R100C%sysevalf(&id+3)"),']');
  put str;
  put '[Format.Number("#,##0")]';    
run;

Again though, DDE is a dead technology, from 30 years + out of service.

Re: DDE : using macro variables inside put statement

FreelanceReinh — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 08:59:19 GMT

Hello @AlexeyS,

You can use double quotes and double double quotes to avoid the single quotes:

put "[select(""R2C%sysevalf(&id+3):R100C%sysevalf(&id+3)"")]";

Re: DDE : using macro variables inside put statement

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 09:09:05 GMT

put '[select("R2C%sysevalf(&id+3):R100C%sysevalf(&id+3)")]';

The outermost single quotes prevent all macro trigger resolution.

Use an intermediate string:

length string $50;
string = '[select("R2C' !! "%sysevalf(&id+3):R100C%sysevalf(&id+3)" !! '")]';
put string;