Rename columns when column names have special characters in macro

qw213 — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 15:17:33 GMT

I am trying to rename my columns in a macro but my desired column names have spaces and special characters in them. (e.g. change column name aaa to aaa $)The code with nliteral works fine outside of the macro but when running in the macro it produces error:

ERROR 24-322: Variable name is not valid.

My code is below

data names;
input name_old $3. name_new & $5.;
datalines;
aaa aaa $
bbb bbb $
;
run;

%macro process;

PROC SQL;
SELECT cats(name_old,' = ',nliteral(name_new)) 
INTO :rename separated by ' '
FROM names;
quit;

data data2;
  SET data1 (rename=(&rename));
run;

%mend;

%process;

I need to write in the macro because I have to perform this action to proceed to my next desired output for multiple data sets.

Thanks for your help!

Re: Rename columns when column names have special characters in macro

FreelanceReinh — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 15:31:38 GMT

Hi @qw213,

Did you set the required system option?

options validvarname=any;

Re: Rename columns when column names have special characters in macro

qw213 — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 15:37:18 GMT

Ah yes that's the issue I had preset it to V7 in the previous step. Thanks for your help!

topic Rename columns when column names have special characters in macro in SAS Programming

Rename columns when column names have special characters in macro

Re: Rename columns when column names have special characters in macro

Re: Rename columns when column names have special characters in macro