topic Re: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is in SAS Programming

A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is req

arunr — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 21:52:24 GMT

Hi,

I'm getting an error using following code. please help what am I missing ?

%let indir=//folder/path;

%PUT &indir;

%if %substr(&indir,%length(&indir),1)^=/ %then %let indir=&indir/;

ERROR: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is required. The condition was:
T^=/

Re: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is

jimbarbour — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 22:23:58 GMT

Something returned from your functions is coming back as character instead of numeric. You might try doing a STRIP for the data you're trying to get the length of.

Jim

Re: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is

ballardw — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 22:12:05 GMT

It appears that the bare / character may be treated as expecting division (numeric)

See if forcing quotes does what you expect:

%if %quote(%substr(&indir,%length(&indir)))^= "/" %then %let indir=&indir/;

When the second parameter of Substr is the length of the variable you get the last character, so the ,1 isn't needed.

Re: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is

Tom — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 22:29:42 GMT

%EVAL() is looking for the numbers you want to divide. Macro quoting helps.

904   %if /=/ %then %do;
ERROR: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is required. The condition was:
       /=/
ERROR: Skipping to next %END statement.
905     %put equal;
906   %end;
907   %if %str(/)=%str(/) %then %do;
908     %put equal;
equal
909   %end;

So add macro quoting on both sides of the operator.

%if %qsubstr(&indir,%length(&indir))^=%str(/) %then %let indir=&indir/;

Re: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is

jimbarbour — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 22:29:39 GMT

My first try was not the issue. Try wrapping the left side of the equation in %BQUOTE.

This seems to be working for me:

%let indir=//folder/path;
%PUT &indir;
%if %bquote(%substr(&indir,%length(&indir),1)) ^= %bquote(/) %then 
	%DO;
		%let indir=&indir/;
	%END;
%else
	%DO;
		%put	NOTE:  No action taken;
	%END;

Jim

Re: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is

Tom — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 02:56:34 GMT

That cannot work. You are comparing a one character string to a three character string. They will never be equal.

Either add real quotes to both sides.

Or add macro quoting to both sides.

Re: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is

KentL — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 20:35:35 GMT

Beautiful. %quote() comes to the rescue! Thanks.