topic Re: Variable Exists in SAS work dataset in SAS Programming

Variable Exists in SAS work dataset

cgsmoak56 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:02:09 GMT

The following code is not working for me:

%let dsid=%sysfunc(open("&col1"));
%let exist=%sysfunc(varnum(&dsid,foldername));
%let rc =%sysfunc(close(&dsid));
%put 'exist = ' ∃

Here is the log file:

MLOGIC(ODSDATA): %LET (variable name is DSID)
SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable COL1 resolves to TXXB
MLOGIC(ODSDATA): %LET (variable name is EXIST)

SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable DSID resolves to 0
WARNING: Argument 1 to function VARNUM referenced by the %SYSFUNC or %QSYSFUNC macro function is out of range.
NOTE: Mathematical operations could not be performed during %SYSFUNC function execution. The result of the operations have been set to a missing value.
MLOGIC(ODSDATA): %LET (variable name is RC)
SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable DSID resolves to 0
MLOGIC(ODSDATA): %PUT 'exist = ' &exist
SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable EXIST resolves to .
'exist = ' .

Thank you in advance for any solutions.

Re: Variable Exists in SAS work dataset

Tom — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:18:05 GMT

Do you really have a dataset whose name is the six character string "TXXB"?

Do not add quotes in macro code unless you actually want the quotes to be part of the value or code you are generating.

Try:

%let dsid=%sysfunc(open(&col1));

Note here is a 22+ year old macro you can use to simplify your program. https://github.com/sasutils/macros/blob/master/varexist.sas

Re: Variable Exists in SAS work dataset

ballardw — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:59:15 GMT

Your actual issue is with :

SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable DSID resolves to 0

That means the data set was not opened so there are no variables to look for.

Re: Variable Exists in SAS work dataset

cgsmoak56 — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 15:30:32 GMT

Thank you. Removing the " " worked.

Re: Variable Exists in SAS work dataset

AllanBowe — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 20:42:17 GMT

As Tom mentions, why write something when there are mature / well tested macros on github that do the same thing.

Here's the SASjs/core version (which comes without the licence restrictions): https://github.com/sasjs/core/blob/main/base/mf_existvar.sas