topic Re: Length of macro variable in SAS Programming

Length of macro variable

SASPhile — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:09:40 GMT

proc sql;

select distinct "'"||compress(networkid)||"'"

into :nwid SEPaRATED BY ","

from a1.nw_master

where srv>0;

create table a2.network_links as

select * from a1.nw_linkages

where id in (&&nwid.);

ERROR: The length of the value of the macro variable NWID (987973) exceeds the maximum length (65534). The value has been truncated

to 65534 characters.

I thought all distinct values will be selected into nwid macro.

Re: Length of macro variable

DBailey — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:19:30 GMT

I'm not sure you need the double ampersand.

Re: Length of macro variable

data_null__ — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:19:49 GMT

This example is contrived but shows what you "could" do.

proc sql; 
   select * from sashelp.class
      where name in(select name from sashelp.class where sex eq 'M');
   quit; 
   run;

Re: Length of macro variable

Reeza — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:26:30 GMT

All distinct values will be selected but your string must be longer than the 65k character length.

You can check if that is the case by calculating the number of distinct network ID and then multiplying by 3+ length of network id: total length ~ # of distinct * (length of networkID + 3).

If thats close to 65K then you have a problem.

Re: Length of macro variable

SASPhile — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:32:52 GMT

Ok..If it greater than 65K sas cannot handle isnt it

Re: Length of macro variable

data_null__ — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:34:02 GMT

You don't need the macro variable.

Re: Length of macro variable

Reeza — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:35:42 GMT

You can use a subquery as shown by Data _null_ or create a macro like identified in this link:

39605 - Create a string that goes beyond the 64K limit for macro variables

I'd go with a subquery, since both tables seem to be in the same location and it would be the fastest.