topic Re: FUNCTIONS in SAS Programming https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/FUNCTIONS/m-p/113750#M23444 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>I really should let Art speak for himself, which I'm sure he will anyhow, but I think he may have been referring to the following fact about macro functions: <SPAN style="color: #000000; font-family: arial, 'Arial Unicode MS', geneva, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff;">macro functions operate before the DATA step executes</SPAN></P><P></P></BODY></HTML> Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:33:54 GMT art297 2012-10-31T19:33:54Z FUNCTIONS https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/FUNCTIONS/m-p/113749#M23443 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>Hi Team,</P><P>Could you please explain to me the meaning of the following sentence?</P><P></P><P>"Data step functions work on charecter strings, numeric values and data step variable values. Macro functions are applied to TEXT STINGS THAT NEVER CONTAIN THE VALUES OF DATASTEP VARIABLES"</P><P></P><P>From: paper 4-25 by Art Carpenter</P><P></P><P>Regards</P></BODY></HTML> Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:14:56 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/FUNCTIONS/m-p/113749#M23443 robertrao 2012-10-31T19:14:56Z Re: FUNCTIONS https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/FUNCTIONS/m-p/113750#M23444 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>I really should let Art speak for himself, which I'm sure he will anyhow, but I think he may have been referring to the following fact about macro functions: <SPAN style="color: #000000; font-family: arial, 'Arial Unicode MS', geneva, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff;">macro functions operate before the DATA step executes</SPAN></P><P></P></BODY></HTML> Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:33:54 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/FUNCTIONS/m-p/113750#M23444 art297 2012-10-31T19:33:54Z Re: FUNCTIONS https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/FUNCTIONS/m-p/113751#M23445 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>Art T is correct. Because macro language elements are executed before the Program Data Vector, PDV, has been established, macro functions cannot work with values on the PDV (data step variable values, and such).&nbsp; The macro language primarily works with text, it is afterall a code generation language.&nbsp; You can think of text as being keystrokes that may eventually become a part of your program.</P></BODY></HTML> Thu, 01 Nov 2012 03:25:28 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/FUNCTIONS/m-p/113751#M23445 ArtC 2012-11-01T03:25:28Z