topic Re: X command with parameters in SAS Programming

X command with parameters

helannivas88 — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:37:30 GMT

Hi,

I have written a shell script to call from SAS via X command. The shell script has totally 3 parameters that I have to pass.

I have a pass one parameters as FORMAT 'TEXT' ESCAPECHAR '\' CTRLCHARS 'YES' along with other two parameters. Example as like below

X ' /home/test/shellscript.sh USER PWD FORMAT 'TEXT' ESCAPECHAR '\' CTRLCHARS 'YES' ' ; but ended up in failure. Even I tried with double quotes as like below

X ' /home/test/shellscript.sh "USER" "PWD" "FORMAT 'TEXT' ESCAPECHAR '\' CTRLCHARS 'YES' " ';

X "/home/test/shellscript.sh USER PWD FORMAT 'TEXT' ESCAPECHAR '\' CTRLCHARS 'YES' ";

No luck on the SAS code. Please help me to resolve this. Thanks

Re: X command with parameters

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:55:54 GMT

First, build safeguards into your script so that it reports a wrong call.

Next, make sure that you get it working from a commandline.

Then, call your script with a filename pipe:

filename oscmd pipe "/home/test/shellscript.sh USER PWD FORMAT 'TEXT' ESCAPECHAR '\' CTRLCHARS 'YES'  2>&1";

data _null_;
infile oscmd;
input;
put _infile_;
run;

and inspect the SAS log for messages returned from the command.

Re: X command with parameters

Ksharp — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 10:47:29 GMT

use -SET in shell file to pass parameters.
-sysin ...... -set x 'abc' -set n 10 ............

in sas code use %sysget() to get parameter value.
%let x=%sysget(x);
%let n=%sysget(n);

@Rick_SAS wrote a blog about it .

Re: X command with parameters

Tom — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 13:23:33 GMT

Sounds like you just need to make sure you quote things properly.

Let's look at your examples one by one.

X ' /home/test/shellscript.sh USER PWD FORMAT 'TEXT' ESCAPECHAR '\' CTRLCHARS 'YES' ' ;

So your have given X a series of quoted text and unquoted text.

' /home/test/shellscript.sh USER PWD FORMAT '
TEXT
' ESCAPECHAR '
\
' CTRLCHARS '
YES
' '

And some of these of the unquoted text is coming immediately after the quoted text which will cause SAS to think you want a special literal, like a date or time value.

In the second one:

X ' /home/test/shellscript.sh "USER" "PWD" "FORMAT 'TEXT' ESCAPECHAR '\' CTRLCHARS 'YES' " ';

Now you have added quotes around the outside and changed some of the quotes in string, but you did change or double all of quotes in the middle.

The last one looks valid.

X "/home/test/shellscript.sh USER PWD FORMAT 'TEXT' ESCAPECHAR '\' CTRLCHARS 'YES' ";

But perhaps the issue is that the script does not work on the machine where SAS is running? Or for the userid that is actually running the SAS code?

Normally I use a data step to run code so I can read back the messages that the operating system command generates.

data _null_;
  infile "/home/test/shellscript.sh USER PWD FORMAT 'TEXT' ESCAPECHAR '\' CTRLCHARS 'YES' " pipe ;
  input ;
  put _infile_;
run;

You can also add 2>&1 to the end of command to make sure that error message from the log are directed back to SAS instead of appearing on the terminal of the process that launched SAS.

Re: X command with parameters

Rick_SAS — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 11:17:59 GMT

KSharp is referring to "How to pass parameters to a SAS program."