topic Re: call symput inside a macro? in SAS Programming

call symput inside a macro?

kstolzmann — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:23:42 GMT

_sym
Hello,

I am trying to nest call symput inside a simple macro. I've tried something like this but can't get it to work:

%macro mean_std (var);

data _null_;

set testmean;

call symputx ("&&var._Mean", &var._Mean);

run;

%put the mean of &var is &&var._Mean;

%mend mean_std;

%mean_std (CarePractice);

Any ideas? Thank you!

Kelly

Re: call symput inside a macro?

RW9 — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:32:39 GMT

Yes, you have additional ampersands (&):

%macro mean_std (var);

data _null_;

set testmean;

call symputx("var_Mean", &var._Mean);

run;

%put the mean of &var is &var_Mean;

%mend mean_std;

%mean_std (CarePractice);

However I think you maybe unclear on the use of this. I don't see an awfull lot of value in trying to unreference the variable to create a new variable like that. If you are trying to create a new variable for the mean then:

%macro mean_std (var);
data want;
set sashelp.cars (obs=1);
attrib &Var._mean format=best.;

&var._mean=mean(&var.);

call symput('result',&var._mean);
run;
%put the mean of &var is &result.;
%mend mean_std;

%mean_std (CarePractice);

Maybe some test data and required output would help clarify.

Re: call symput inside a macro?

kstolzmann — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:54:20 GMT

Thank you, this works! My CarePractice_Mean value is from an aggregated dataset so I want to use this value on my original data (in calculations). I suppose I could have re-merged the aggregated dataset back to my original file (and I'm sure there are other more advanced ways of approaching this problem (using sql, etc.)). Really, I was just trying to avoid typing in "36.7665" every time I needed to use the overall mean and it was bothering me that the code wasn't working (in case I really needed to use this type of call symput inside a macro in the future). Thanks again for your help!

Kelly

Re: call symput inside a macro?

Astounding — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:57:50 GMT

In case it would help, here is a fairly standard way to combine a single observation data set with a multiple observation data set:

data want;

if _n_=1 then set testmean;

set original_data;

run;

It is possible that you would eliminate the macro language entirely.

Good luck.

Re: call symput inside a macro?

kstolzmann — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 13:34:10 GMT

This is helpful--thank you!

Kelly