topic Re: Get dataset name as character string in SAS Programming

Get dataset name as character string

Asesaton — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 12:49:37 GMT

I want to run a macro that takes a dataset, processes it, and outputs a new dataset with a that name depends on the name of the original dataset.

e.g something like this

%let data_in = my_data;

%let data_out = &data_in || '_processed'

But calling &data_in isn't really what I want to do, I would like call the dataset name as a character string. Is this possible?

I've had a hunt through documentation and forums but can't find what I am looking for.

Re: Get dataset name as character string

Kurt_Bremser — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 13:06:09 GMT

Don't use quotes in macro language if you want to concatenate strings. Always keep in mind that macro language is most and foremost a text processing tool, and only knows the data type character.

Do it like this:

%let data_in=my_data;
%let data_out=&data_in._processed;

The dot after the &data_in terminates that particular macro variable reference.

PS if you use quotes in the right side of a %let, they will become part of the value stored in the macro variable, instead of being treated as string delimiters.

Re: Get dataset name as character string

Asesaton — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 13:15:34 GMT

Thanks for quick response, this worked. Thanks also for explaining about how macro language works. I didn't realize it was purely text processing