topic Re: Concat macro variable and place in column in SAS Programming

Concat macro variable and place in column

sasboy007 — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:04:05 GMT

Hi all,

I'm trying to create the below concat and dump into a column. But instead of adding the macro variable into the concat statement and filling down on the column it's creating a new column header and placing that macro variable into it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks. Below is my code:

tmp = (left(trim(put(&var1,2.)))) || (left(trim('-'))) || (left(trim(put(dateStart,6.)))) || (left(trim('-'))) || (left(trim(put(dateEnd,6.))));

Re: Concat macro variable and place in column

RW9 — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:14:30 GMT

Hi,

Would need to see the code in context. You can compress your code down also by doing:

tmp=catx('-',put(&var1.,2.),put(datestart,6.),put(dateend,6.);

Also note to put the point after macro variable, doesn't normally matter, but its on of those good practice things.

Re: Concat macro variable and place in column

sasboy007 — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:26:03 GMT

data test;

length tmp $16;

set newFile;

dateStart= &pStart.;

dateEnd = &pEnd.;

tmp = (left(trim(put(&var1,2.)))) || (left(trim('-'))) || (left(trim(put(dateStart,6.)))) || (left(trim('-'))) || (left(trim(put(dateEnd,6.))));

run;

Re: Concat macro variable and place in column

Astounding — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:58:43 GMT

Two questions ...

(1) Are you sure? Because of the LENGTH statement, TMP would be the first variable in TEST. Are you looking in the right place?

(2) What is the value assigned to &VAR1?

Good luck.

Re: Concat macro variable and place in column

RW9 — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:20:51 GMT

+1 to Astounding. Also, try the catx version rather than all the left trim and hyphen combinations.