topic Re: NOTE 49-169 error during macro compilation in SAS Programming

NOTE 49-169 error during macro compilation

aaronh — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 14:03:06 GMT

Hello,

I have a macro, in which there are a few %let statements like this:

%macro example(x,y);

%if &x. = city %then %do; 
%let place = %bquote(Children's Hospital);
%end;

...
%mend example;

During macro compilation, it produces a note:

NOTE 49-169: The meaning of an identifier after a quoted string might change in a future SAS release. Inserting white space... is recommended.

Is there a way to amend this? I thought the %bquote( ) function is supposed to mask the quotation mark. Thank you!

Re: NOTE 49-169 error during macro compilation

Astounding — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 14:18:17 GMT

%BQUOTE does mask, but it has its effect as the macro executes. It has no effect when the macro is compiled. You should be able to switch to:

%let place = %str(Children%'s Hospital);

Re: NOTE 49-169 error during macro compilation

ballardw — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 14:38:43 GMT

@aaronh wrote:

Hello,

I have a macro, in which there are a few %let statements like this:
%macro example(x,y);

%if &x. = city %then %do; 
%let place = %bquote(Children's Hospital);
%end;

...
%mend example;
During macro compilation, it produces a note:
NOTE 49-169: The meaning of an identifier after a quoted string might change in a future SAS release. Inserting white space... is recommended.
Is there a way to amend this? I thought the %bquote( ) function is supposed to mask the quotation mark. Thank you!

NOT an error. That note occurs in almost any instance of a quote and other character that is not inside a masked string. Special constructs of dates, '01Jan2019'd, times, '13:15:25't, datetime, '01Jan2019:13:15:25'dt tell SAS to treat these as special values. Name literals such as 'Not a standard/SAS var'n uses the n to indicate a special variable name literal such as when addressing external database systems that all variable names that do not meet SAS name requirements. The note indicates that possibly at some point in the system your use might be interpreted differently.

Re: NOTE 49-169 error during macro compilation

aaronh — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 14:50:09 GMT

Thank you ballardw!

Re: NOTE 49-169 error during macro compilation

aaronh — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 14:51:04 GMT

Thanks Astounding!

Using the str( ) and a % sign before the unbalanced quotation mark solved my issue.

Re: NOTE 49-169 error during macro compilation

Tom — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 18:12:58 GMT

How are you using the macro variable PLACE ?

Perhaps you can just add real quotes to the value instead of trying to use macro quoting.

%let place = "Children's Hospital";
....
data ...
    location = &place ;
...
    
title1 "Report for "  &place ;

Re: NOTE 49-169 error during macro compilation

aaronh — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 14:39:19 GMT

Thanks for the input! I was using it in a data step where statement:

...
where place = "&place.";

Re: NOTE 49-169 error during macro compilation

Tom — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 15:18:20 GMT

@aaronh wrote:
Thanks for the input! I was using it in a data step where statement:

...
where place = "&place.";

Exactly.

So if PLACE already has the quotes built in then change that to:

where place = &place;