topic Is there a way to reference macros in outmail in sas for attachments (XLS) in SAS Programming

Is there a way to reference macros in outmail in sas for attachments (XLS)

Klakola — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 19:53:13 GMT

Is there a way to reference macros in outmail in sas for:

path name where the attachment is kept?

*Is there also a way to reference a macro for email? I have multiple users running the report and would rather not have the user have to scroll down to hardcode their own email if this can be done 'up front' in a let statement.

/*EMAIL*/

%let fileref = 'file name' <= this dynamically changes/user sets　

%let path = 'sas/folder/data' <= where data/information is stored. path is changed by user (person running report saves data to their work folder)

filename OUTMAIL email

subject = '(&fileref) Report'

from = 'me@mail.com' <-can a macro be used here as well so a user doesn't scroll down to hardcode an email value?

to = them@mail.com'

attach =('/&path/Report.xls' <-can a macro be used for a path so a user doesn't scroll down to hardcode?

content_type='application/xls');

Re: Is there a way to reference macros in outmail in sas for attachments (XLS)

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 20:23:39 GMT

Macro triggers (& and %) are not resolved within single quotes. Use double quotes whenever you need macro triggers to be resolved.

Re: Is there a way to reference macros in outmail in sas for attachments (XLS)

ballardw — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 22:24:45 GMT

And you may not want the quotes in the %let assignments for those macro variables.

If you use

%let path = 'sas/folder/data'

then when this resolves (assuming you replace the single quotes to double quotes so it can resolve) then

attach =("/&path/Report.xls"

would resolve to

attach =("/'sas/folder/data'/Report.xls"

which is almost certainly not the correct path. Color and font changed to indicate the probable issue.

Macro variables are always text, so you don't need the quotes to tell the processor that you want a character value. The quotes become part of the value.