topic Re: Assign values to array in do loop in SAS Programming

Assign values to array in do loop

TomNYCKid — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:50:35 GMT

Upfront... just want to say thanks for the help...

I have the following code snipet for assigning values from a dataset to an array... I get an error message about converting numeric values to char values. I have not been able to find a solution to this. Would greatly appreciate any help...

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%macro DefineInputArray;
ARRAY BYLINE(48) $16. BYLINE1 - BYLINE50;
%mend;

data sims;

set data_inputs;
%DefineInputArray;

format iter BEST.;
do i=1 to 50;
%let iter = 1000+(i-1)*1000;
BYLINE(i) = iVALUE&iter .;
end;

run;

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NOTE: Numeric values have been converted to character values at the places given by: (Line):(Column).

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Re: Assign values to array in do loop

MumSquared — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 01:31:56 GMT

Try using %eval() with the %let statement:

%let iter = %eval(1000+(i-1)*1000);

Re: Assign values to array in do loop

Patrick — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 02:26:35 GMT

You will have a timing issue when using a macro %let statement in a data step. The %let statement will get executed before the data step so it won't be part of the data step iteration and you also can't pass a SAS data step variable to the %let statement. There your "i" will simply be interpreted as the character 'i'.

Not sure why you need a macro at all but as this is a code snippet reality might look different and there are good reasons for a macro. Below should make your code snippet work:

%macro DefineInputArray;

ARRAY BYLINE(50) $16. BYLINE1 - BYLINE50;

array iVal (50)

%do i=1 %to 50;

%let iter = %eval(1000+(&i-1)*1000);

iVALUE&iter

%end;

%str(;)

%mend;

data sims;

set data_inputs;

%DefineInputArray;

do i=1 to dim(BYLINE);

BYLINE = iVALUE;

end;

run;