topic Putting a macro variable inside single quotations in SAS Programming

Putting a macro variable inside single quotations

girl_withno_nam — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 08:30:38 GMT

I have the following macro variable(s)

%LET LIVE_DATE = 07JUL2021;

DATA _NULL_;
CALL SYMPUT('DAY_NUM',WEEKDAY("&LIVE_DATE"D));
RUN;
%PUT &DAY_NUM;

So DAY_NUM returns the value 4 and I want to use DAY_NUM in place of the hardcoded 4 later within the code:

WEEK_START = INTNX('WEEK1.4',DTE_RCVD,0);

But I can't figure out how to do this ... &, &&, how many quotation marks, where ??
Is it even possible?

Any help appreciated, thank you!

Re: Putting a macro variable inside single quotations

FreelanceReinh — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 09:36:36 GMT

Hello @girl_withno_nam and welcome to the SAS Support Communities!

First, use CALL SYMPUTX instead of CALL SYMPUT to avoid leading blanks in macro variable DAY_NUM and an unwanted note (about numeric-to-character conversion) in the log.

Then replace the single quotes in the first argument of the INTNX function with double quotes and the hardcoded 4 with the macro variable reference as usual:

"WEEK1.&DAY_NUM"

Edit: Alternatively, if &DAY_NUM is used only in that INTNX function call, you can plug in the definition directly, without the preceding DATA step:

"WEEK.%sysfunc(weekday("&live_date"d))"

(Omitted the redundant "1" after "WEEK".)

Re: Putting a macro variable inside single quotations

girl_withno_nam — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 10:28:28 GMT

Thank you! I've tried the first solution and that works... will take a look at upgrading to your second solution too!