topic Re: Macro variable check in SAS Programming

Macro variable check

vicky07 — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:27:04 GMT

Hi,

I am fairly new to Macro and I am struggling with the below simple code.

%Let ak = abd2001;

%Macro year;

%If &ak = %str(abd2001) %then

%do;

%Put &ak.;

%end;

%Mend;

%year;

The above code works fine,but i want to run the same macro for a different macro variable, let's say abd2005 .

%Let ak = abd2005;

%Macro year;

%If &ak in %str(abd2001,abd2005) %then

%do;

%Put &ak.;

%end;

%Mend;

%year;

I am getting error now. Like i said I am new to macro and just learning. Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks!

Re: Macro variable check

Linlin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:37:31 GMT

Hi,

try adding:

options minoperater;

if you have sas 9.2 or higher

Re: Macro variable check

vicky07 — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:02:43 GMT

Linlin - Added the option you suggested and i am not getting any error this time but the macro condition is saying False, even though the parameter that i passed is abd2005..

Re: Macro variable check

Ankitsas — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:31:27 GMT

Replace --

%If &ak in %str(abd2001,abd2005)

with

%If &ak in (abd2001,abd2005)

Note - %str is used to mask commas,% etc.

Re: Macro variable check

vicky07 — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:43:53 GMT

Ankitsas - I need the %str as some of the variables that input has commas. But on a side note, I tried without the %str and it still didn't work.

Re: Macro variable check

Linlin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:59:54 GMT

try

options minoperator mindelimiter=',';

%Let ak = abd2005;

%Macro year;

%If &ak in %str(abd2001,abd2005) %then

%do;

%Put &ak.;

%end;

%Mend;

%year;

Re: Macro variable check

Astounding — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:38:15 GMT

As you have seen, the IN operator in macro language is not as simple as the DATA step IN operator. Given that you are new to macro language, I would recommend starting somewhere else. Fow now, you could just spell out the values:

%if &ak=adb2001 or &ak=adb2005 %then %do;

Even that simple-looking syntax can become complicated, depending on the range of values that &AK can take on.

Re: Macro variable check

vicky07 — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:34:59 GMT

Linlin - I added option mindelimiter and it is still no working.

Re: Macro variable check

vicky07 — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:38:50 GMT

Astounding,

It worked, thx, but the thing is I have more than 20 range of values that ak can take(just mentioned 2 for illustration purpose) and wondering if there is a more efficient way of doing this rather than listing all 20 variable with a OR in between.

Re: Macro variable check

ballardw — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:41:19 GMT

Are you saying that values of AK will have commas? If so you probably want to use a mindelimiter other than comma because otherwise the IN operator will examine each comma delimited string to the value of AK and never find a match.

Example if AK = abd2001,abd2005 and you are using IN (abd2001, abd2005) then AK is compared to abd2001 and is not match, then AK is compared to abd2005 and is not a match, so no match.

You will need to use a charcter for the delimiter that will not ever appear in AK to have this work as intended.

Re: Macro variable check

Linlin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:05:53 GMT

Hi,

It works for me. below is my log file.

1 options minoperator mindelimiter=',';

2 %Let ak = abd2005;

3 %Macro year;

4 %If &ak in %str(abd2001,abd2005) %then

5 %do;

6 %Put &ak.;

7 %end;

8 %Mend;

9 %year;

abd2005

Re: Macro variable check

vicky07 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 03:17:08 GMT

It works now. I had a typo in my code. TY!

Re: Macro variable check

Ron_MacroMaven — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:19:01 GMT

see also The Answer supplied by a Little Birdie:

http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/MINDELIMITER_Macro_In_Delimiter

Ron Fehd in.tu.it maven