topic Re: Wilcard usage for character values in %LET statement in SAS Programming

Wilcard usage for character values in %LET statement

tuncay — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 07:27:24 GMT

Hi all,

I'm a very newbie at SAS programming, so please bear with me.

I was writing a piece of code which includes a %LET statement. I would like to assign more than one value to a %let statement similar to below:

%let item=('A120XXX', 'A250XXX', 'A150XXX')

My item are way more than 3 and I would like to use a wildcard like

%let item=('A***XXX') ;

SAS do not return any results.

Is there a way to get around this?

Thanks

Re: Wilcard usage for character values in %LET statement

LinusH — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:10:18 GMT

Perhaps you need to describe in more detail how you suppose to use this macro variable "item"? Also, what does your items represent?

Macro variable values are generally seen as plain text by the compiler, so if you wish to apply some logic in the assignment, you have to solve differently.

If your wild-card should represent numerical values in a range, you can perhaps use %do-loops to generate the values (but that needs to be done within a macro definition, not in open code).

The data step offers more flexibility in this area, so perhaps you can create your macro variable within a data step using call symput instead?

Re: Wilcard usage for character values in %LET statement

Ron_MacroMaven — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:16:38 GMT

in order to fill in the range of values which asterisks represent

you have to provide that list:

%Let ItemNmbrs = 120 150 250;

%macro fluff(prefix=,infix=,suffix=);

%local I J K dim_I dim_J dim_K value;

%let I = 1;

%let J = 1;

%let K = 1;

%let dim_I = %sysfunc(countw(&prefix,%str( )));

%let dim_J = %sysfunc(countw(&infix ,%str( )));

%let dim_K = %sysfunc(countw(&suffix,%str( )));

%let value =;

%Loop:

%let Pfx = %scan(&Prefix,&I);

%let Nfx = %scan(&Infix ,&J);

%let Sfx = %scan(&Suffix,&K);

%let value = &Value. &Pfx.&Nfx.&Sfx.;

%if &I eq &Dim_I

and &J eq &Dim_J

and &K eq &Dim_K %then %do;

&value

%*goto %exit;

%return;

%end;

%if &I lt &Dim_I %then %let I = %eval(&I+1);

%if &J lt &Dim_J %then %let J = %eval(&J+1);

%if &K lt &Dim_K %then %let K = %eval(&K+1);

%goto Loop;

%exit:

%mend;

%Let Item = %fluff(prefix=A,infix=&ItemNmbrs,suffix=XXX);

%put Item:&Item;

Ron Fehd loop maven

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

Re: Wilcard usage for character values in %LET statement

data_null__ — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:23:27 GMT

Where to you look to find the part that is represented by ***.

1) variable names.

2) data values

3) somewhere else

Re: Wilcard usage for character values in %LET statement

Ron_MacroMaven — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:43:07 GMT

... and yes, %do loops are easier

%macro fluff2(prefix=,infix=,suffix=);

%local I J K value;

%let value =;

%do I = 1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&prefix,%str( )));

%do J = 1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&infix ,%str( )));

%do K = 1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&suffix,%str( )));

%let value = &Value. %scan(&Prefix ,&I

)%scan(&Infix ,&J

)%scan(&Suffix,&K);

%end;

&value

%mend;

%Let Item2 = %fluff2(prefix=A,infix=&ItemNmbrs,suffix=XXX);

%put Item2:&Item2;