topic Re: The Use of Number Sign Symbol # ? in SAS Programming

The Use of Number Sign Symbol # ?

letminho — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 16:43:35 GMT

Hi,

Im looking at an old code that uses that seemingly uses the # number sign symbol but I cannot figure out what its function is and it does not seem to exist on the internet.

For example, A = X#Y is something close to what I am seeing.

Could be be an old language/syntax that is no longer being used? I am relatively new to SAS and not familar if there was even an old syntax.

I really need to know as soon as possible, THANKS

Re: The Use of Number Sign Symbol # ?

ballardw — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 16:56:47 GMT

Without seeing more code or possibly some input / output of the result the following is a complete guess:

Font change

It may be that the original code was stored in a different font, possibly on a mainframe, and when transferred to another system the font encoding didn't quite work.

In a longer shot, if the code is old enough or from some shop then the # could have been an Editor directive which would behave somewhat like a SAS macro but was used in an editor external to SAS.

If the place in the code looks like exponentiation was involved then it may have been a ^.

If the code with # involves Input or Put statements then the # is used to indicate either the line to read from or column to print to but would not normally occur in calculations.

Re: The Use of Number Sign Symbol # ?

Rick_SAS — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 17:21:12 GMT

What is the context? What procedure is being run? In PROC IML (formerly PROC MATRIX if we are going back to the '80s), the # operator denotes elementwise multiplication. See the article "Ways to multiply in the SAS/IML language."

Re: The Use of Number Sign Symbol # ?

letminho — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 17:25:45 GMT

I believe this is what is happening in my program! Thank you so much Rick!