topic Re: Insert an automatic macro variable as a value in proc sql in SAS Programming

Insert an automatic macro variable as a value in proc sql

SergioSanchez — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 11:40:48 GMT

Hi all

I am trying to insert values in a table with proc sql using a macro variable like this

proc sql;

insert into dummy (a, b, c, d, date)

values (&a., &b., &c., &d., &SYSDATE9);

quit;

Is there any option to achiveve the goal?. I try too with symget'SYSDATE9' and something else without success.

Thanks in advanced.

Re: Insert an automatic macro variable as a value in proc sql

LinusH — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 11:45:20 GMT

&SYSDATE is in the date format, which is the same format as the d literal is using.

You can't evaluate a macro variable within single quotes, you need double:

"&SYSDATE9"D

Re: Insert an automatic macro variable as a value in proc sql

Tom — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 11:48:20 GMT

That will not work. Note that all macro expansion is doing is replacing the macro variable reference with the text of that macro variable. In this case you are generating code like:

insert into dummy (date) value (09SEP2014)

That will not be valid syntax since 09SEP2014 is not a variable reference or a literal value.

To generate a literal date value you need to add quotes and the letter D (for date).

insert into dummy (date) value ("09SEP2014"d)

So now you have legal SAS code and you can replace the date with the macro variable reference.

insert into dummy (date) value ("&sysdate9"d)

Re: Insert an automatic macro variable as a value in proc sql

SergioSanchez — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:07:10 GMT

Thanks both for your quickly answer.