topic macro variable list elements in SAS Programming

macro variable list elements

cminard — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 15:34:12 GMT

I would like to generate a new variable that is set equal to an element from a macro variable list. But, I want to select the element from the list based on a value in the dataset.

For example:

%let myvar = 12 23 95 1005;
data temp;
	do x = 1 to 4;
		output;
	end;
run;

data temp2;
	set temp;
	y=%scan(&myvar,x,' ');
run;

This code yields an error because the %scan function is expecting an integer for the second condition.

I want the output to be a dataset:
x y

1 12

2 23

3 95

4 1005

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

Re: macro variable list elements

FreelanceReinh — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 16:00:04 GMT

Hello @cminard,

Use the SCAN function instead:

y=scan("&myvar",x,' ');

or simply

y=scan("&myvar",x);

Re: macro variable list elements

Tom — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 16:00:27 GMT

You need to use the SCAN() function in a data step. %SCAN() is for the macro processor, not for SAS code.

data temp2;
	set temp;
	y=scan("&myvar",x,' ');
run;