topic Re: How to remove multiple double quotes in a macro variable? in SAS Programming

How to remove multiple double quotes in a macro variable?

Vestax — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 20:50:21 GMT

Hi all. We have a list of emails that I'm trying to store in a table that looks something like this:

"ironman@marvel.com" "thor@marvel.com" "hulk@marvel.com"

which is passed onto a macro var &team. It is then called out in a proc sql that looks like this:

proc sql;

create table avengers as

select

"&team." as members

from earth

;

quit;

However SAS sees the double quotes and gets all confused. It won't let me use single quotes. I've tried compress and tranwrd, those are not working either. Any help is appreciated.

Re: How to remove multiple double quotes in a macro variable?

novinosrin — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 21:07:26 GMT

Not sure, as I don't comprehend the flow of data in your process but a simple demo

%let k="ironman@marvel.com" "thor@marvel.com" "hulk@marvel.com";
%put &k;
%let k1=%sysfunc(compress(%superq(k),%str(%")));
%put &k1 ;

Re: How to remove multiple double quotes in a macro variable?

Vestax — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 23:29:16 GMT

@novinosrin wrote:
Not sure, as I don't comprehend the flow of data in your process but a simple demo
%let k="ironman@marvel.com" "thor@marvel.com" "hulk@marvel.com";
%put &k;
%let k1=%sysfunc(compress(%superq(k),%str(%")));
%put &k1 ;

We're trying to store the string in the macro variable as an observation. Your solution works somewhat but what if there are no spaces and the data coming in looks like

%let k="ironman@marvel.com""thor@marvel.com""hulk@marvel.com";

Is it possible to add spaces or remove the double quotes without compressing the spaces?

Re: How to remove multiple double quotes in a macro variable?

Reeza — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 23:31:13 GMT

Any reason you can’t do this instead:

select &team as members....

Re: How to remove multiple double quotes in a macro variable?

novinosrin — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 23:37:26 GMT

@Vestax have you tried translate instead of trnwrd?


%let k="ironman@marvel.com""thor@marvel.com""hulk@marvel.com";
%put &k;
%let k1=%sysfunc(translate(%superq(k),%str( ),%str(%")));
%put &k1 ;

I think somebody who is senior and wiser would prolly even suggest a better design of the data flow process or even table design. The manual operation seems wary. But anyway up to you.

Re: How to remove multiple double quotes in a macro variable?

Vestax — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 23:37:32 GMT

The PROC SQL doesn't like that there multiple double quotes. After the second double quote, it errors out.

Re: How to remove multiple double quotes in a macro variable?

Vestax — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 23:47:16 GMT

This works as intended. Thanks for your help.