topic Re: Help with set proc contents default order=varnum? in SAS Programming

Help with set proc contents default order=varnum?

kjohnsonm — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 16:58:22 GMT

Hello does anyone know if I can set proc contents to default to

set proc contents default 'order=varnum'?

I think my is set to collate.

I mean I do not want to have to type out

proc contents data={myfile} order=varnum;

run;

but

proc contents data={myfile};

run;

proc contents;run;

...is fine when I use it 10 -20 times a day and yes I know about abbreviations.

-TIA KJ

Re: Help with set proc contents default order=varnum?

mkeintz — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 17:05:23 GMT

Write a macro, such as CNTNTS below:

%macro cntnts (data=_last_);
    proc contents data=&data  varnum;
    run;
%mend;

Then you can type:

%cntnts (data=mylib.mydata);

to get what you want for dataset mylib.mydata.

And you get the bonus of just typing:

%cntnts;

to report on the data set most recently created in your current sas session. That's why I put in the automatic variable _LAST_ as the default "data=" option in the macro definition.

Re: Help with set proc contents default order=varnum?

Patrick — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 17:05:42 GMT

You can't change this default. Happy typing!

Re: Help with set proc contents default order=varnum?

Astounding — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 03:53:33 GMT

You'll have to check this, to see whether it is still supported. It might let you get away with typing one extra letter.

There used to be statement style macros available as part of the software. That means you could invoke a macro just by typing the name of the macro without a percent sign:

http://www.sascommunity.org/sugi/SUGI84/Sugi-84-179%20Henderson%20Kuhn.pdf

So you could create your own statement-style macro using:

%macro contentss / stmt;

contents order=varnum

%mend contentss;

Then in the body of your program, you would just have to type an extra "s":

proc contentss data=mydataset;

run;

SAS would automatically replace "contentss" with "contents order=varnum".

If that would be a viable solution for you, give it a try and see if it is still supported.