topic Re: Macro assignment? in SAS Programming

Macro assignment?

JasonL — Thu, 16 May 2019 17:55:03 GMT

Can somebody explain what the following statement does?

%mBuildLookupTab1(NAME=Region_Code_Conversion,DATASET=MyData.CCAC_LHIN,KEY=Region_ID,OBJ1=Region_Code);

Re: Macro assignment?

PaigeMiller — Thu, 16 May 2019 18:02:28 GMT

It executes a SAS macro named %mBuildLookupTab1 (so someone has previously created this macro, and possibly stored it in a location from which it will be called), with arguments NAME, DATASET, KEY and OBJ1 taking on the values shown.

Re: Macro assignment?

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 16 May 2019 18:03:18 GMT

Not without seeing the macro code.

Re: Macro assignment?

JasonL — Thu, 16 May 2019 18:08:44 GMT

Ok thanks.

Re: Macro assignment?

Cynthia_sas — Thu, 16 May 2019 18:52:22 GMT

Hi:

This code is invoking a SAS macro program definition named %mBuildLookupTab1. Someplace, there should be code that has this:

%macro mBuildLookupTab1();

...... more code .....

%mend;

The "more code" is what gets executed when the macro program is invoked. Within the parentheses in the macro definition and the macro invocation are macro parameters: NAME, DATASET, KEY, and OBJ1. Inside the %MACRO definition, the parameters are being defined. In the "more code", the macro parameters should be visible as their macro variable equivalents: &NAME, &DATASET, &KEY, and &OBJ1. Without knowing more about what is in the "more code" in the macro definition program, it's nearly impossible to tell what is happening in the macro program when it is executed.

You can turn on

options MPRINT SYMBOLGEN;

to see what the macro program is doing when you run it.

Hope this helps,

Cynthia

Re: Macro assignment?

JasonL — Thu, 16 May 2019 18:59:28 GMT

Thanks a lot Cynthia!