topic Re: Delete temporary variable in SAS Programming

Delete temporary variable

shivagujjaru — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 10:26:58 GMT

Hi guys, I need to delete a temporary variable. Created by using select distinct variable name into: variable1.

How can I delete this variable1 from work lib .

Re: Delete temporary variable

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 10:34:57 GMT

This is not a temporary variable (these can exist in data steps), but a macro variable (select into in SQL creates macro variables).

Use the %symdel statement to remove unwanted macro variables.

Re: Delete temporary variable

PeterClemmensen — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 10:58:28 GMT

variable1 is a macro variable.. Google search for "delete macro variable" will give you plenty of answers

Re: Delete temporary variable

shivagujjaru — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 11:04:19 GMT

Adding a point Symdel delete global macro variable . But I have created local macro variable. Thanks alot guys

Re: Delete temporary variable

Tom — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 14:11:09 GMT

@shivagujjaru wrote:
Adding a point Symdel delete global macro variable . But I have created local macro variable. Thanks alot guys

Why would you need to delete a local macro variable? It will disappear when the macro finishes.

Re: Delete temporary variable

shivagujjaru — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 14:13:42 GMT

I have applied some loop inside the macro . It's like when file is not exits it's still using the local macro variable while checking a condition. Thanks , now it's working

Re: Delete temporary variable

Tom — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 14:18:44 GMT

@shivagujjaru wrote:
I have applied some loop inside the macro . It's like when file is not exits it's still using the local macro variable while checking a condition. Thanks , now it's working

When you use INTO in PROC SQL and the query returns no observations then the macro variable is not created (or modified).

Set the macro variable to a value BEFORE the query.

%let list=;
select x into :list separated by ' ' from have where condition;

You can also use the automatic macro variable SQLOBS to see how many observations where selected.

%let n=&sqlobs;
%do i=1 %to &n;
  %let next=%scan(&list,&i,%str( ));
....