topic Re: Calling Macro in String with Apostrope and Ampersand in SAS Programming

Calling Macro in String with Apostrope and Ampersand

brophykl — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:03:22 GMT

I have a variable with a single quote and ampersand that is being invoked when I don't want it to.

In this data step, I am trying to create a variable with a single quote and Ampersand, but I'm getting the error that macro variable W is not resolved. What function can I use to fix this?

Data SC_Mkt;

Retain Supplier Alignment_Geo Alignment_Name Market Region BU;

set SC_ZIP (keep=IMS_ZIP Market Region BU rename=(IMS_ZIP=Alignment_Geo));

Supplier="PAUL";

Alignment_Name="Paul's H&W";

run;

In the following Proc Export, I am trying to use the same name in the outfile name, but also need to be able to invoke the macro for yyyymm and yyyymmdd. How can I fix this?

proc export data=SC_Mkt

outfile="C:\Alignment\&yyyymm Paul's\Upload to RxI\Paul's H&W &yyyymmdd..csv"

DBMS=csv

REPLACE;

run;

quit;

Thank you,

Kelly

Re: Calling Macro in String with Apostrope and Ampersand

PaigeMiller — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:10:47 GMT

outfile="C:\Alignment\&yyyymm Paul%str(%')s\Upload to RxI\Paul%str(%')s %nrstr(H&W) &yyyymmdd..csv"

Re: Calling Macro in String with Apostrope and Ampersand

RW9 — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:12:56 GMT

Importantly, don't use special characters or spaces in filenames and path's, all you are doing is causing problems for yourself. There maybe a coding way round it, however the real problem is putting special characters in filenames/paths.

Re: Calling Macro in String with Apostrope and Ampersand

ballardw — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:13:58 GMT

It is very bad juju to have special characters in directory paths like ',?! and such.

However if you want SAS to resolve to a single quote you can place two single quotes in the text when using a single quote to prevent macro resolution:

Alignment_Name='Paul''s H&W';

But for that path I would strongly suggest not to use any ' or & in the path names. Or at least very carefully evaluate the business logic for having such things.

Re: Calling Macro in String with Apostrope and Ampersand

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:35:18 GMT

See Maxim 44. What's said there about blanks goes double for any special characters.

Use a LART on the one who came up with those crazy file- and pathnames.