topic Re: %put vs put summary question in SAS Programming

%put vs put summary question

ZRick — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:17:22 GMT

just want to summarize put vs %put,

This code I thought can summarize where to use %put or put and what it means to data step variable, macro variable, char string

%let x=toyota;

%macro m;

%put &x;

put &x;

data _null_;

put 'x';

put x;

%put "&x";

run;

%mend;

put has to be inside the the data step,

%put can be anywhere inside data step or macro

am I understanding that correctly?

Re: %put vs put summary question

Jay_TxOAG — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:23:48 GMT

%Put can be in open code and doesn't need quotes.

Re: %put vs put summary question

Astounding — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:46:15 GMT

ZRick,

PUT can write text strings, as well as values found in the DATA step variables.

%PUT can write text strings only (including the values of macro variables), NEVER the contents of a DATA step. You might utilize other tools such as CALL SYMPUT to transfer information from a DATA step to a macro variable. After that, %PUT can write the macro variable's value.

Good luck.

Re: %put vs put summary question

ZRick — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:22:51 GMT

%PUT can write text strings only (including the values of macro variables), NEVER the contents of a DATA step.

But it is still useable by putting %put inside the data step right? I mean, at least sas didn't report error

Re: %put vs put summary question

Astounding — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:06:15 GMT

Not really. It doesn't cause an error, but %PUT is not part of the DATA step. You can see that by looking at the order of the messages in the log. Even though the %PUT statement appears just before the RUN statement, the message from %PUT prints first, before the DATA step begins to execute. The %PUT statement could have appeared before the DATA step, after the DATA step, or in the middle of the DATA step, and it would have written the same message. The only connection between the DATA step and %PUT would be if the DATA step uses CALL SYMPUT to change the value of &X.

Re: %put vs put summary question

ZRick — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:44:13 GMT

Excellent point, I finally got it