topic remove quotes from macro and remove commas in SAS Programming

remove quotes from macro and remove commas

Ronein — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 10:32:06 GMT

Hello

Let's say that user define a macro var called vector1 that contain values separated by comma.

The task is to create another macro variable called vector2 that contain same values as vector 1 but values separated by space and also the values shouldn't be quoted .

What is the way to do it please?

%let Vector1='RFA07','RFA02','RFA04','BRG92','PER1903';
/*Task-Create macro variable Vector2 that will be equal to
 RFA07 RFA02 RFA04 BRG92 PER1903*/

Re: remove quotes from macro and remove commas

tarheel13 — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 10:36:04 GMT

well we just showed you how to remove spaces in your other post.

Re: remove quotes from macro and remove commas

Ronein — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 10:57:50 GMT

True but now need to do 2 actions :

remove comma and remove quotes.

I have tried fist to remove the single quotes but I received an error

Re: remove quotes from macro and remove commas

Ronein — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 10:52:36 GMT

Please see the error

%let Vector1=
'RFA01',
	'RFA07',
	'RFA02',
	'RFA03',
	'RFA04',
	'RFA05',
	'RFB01',
	'RFB02',
	'RFB04',
	'RFB09', 
	'RFB05',
	'RFB06',
	'RFB07',
	'RFB08';

%let Vector2 = %qsysfunc(compress(&Vector1,%str(%')));
ERROR: The function COMPRESS referenced by the %SYSFUNC or %QSYSFUNC macro function has too many arguments.

Re: remove quotes from macro and remove commas

yabwon — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 11:09:27 GMT

Try this:

%let Vector1=
'RFA01',
	'RFA07',
	'RFA02',
	'RFA03',
	'RFA04',
	'RFA05',
	'RFB01',
	'RFB02',
	'RFB04',
	'RFB09', 
	'RFB05',
	'RFB06',
	'RFB07',
	'RFB08';

%let Vector2 = %qsysfunc(compress((&Vector1),%str((%'))));
%put &=Vector2.;

Bart

Re: remove quotes from macro and remove commas

tarheel13 — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 11:15:24 GMT

you need to wrap &vector1 with %quote().

%let Vector1='RFA07','RFA02','RFA04','BRG92','PER1903';
%let Vector2 = %qsysfunc(compress(%quote(&vector1),%str(%')));
%put &=vector2;

Re: remove quotes from macro and remove commas

tarheel13 — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 11:20:38 GMT

just do it in 2 steps

%let Vector1='RFA07','RFA02','RFA04','BRG92','PER1903';
%let Vector2 = %qsysfunc(compress(%quote(&vector1),%str(%')));
%let vector2 = %sysfunc(tranwrd(%quote(&vector2),%str(,),%str()));
%put &=vector2;

Re: remove quotes from macro and remove commas

PaigeMiller — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 11:35:38 GMT

%let Vector1='RFA07','RFA02','RFA04','BRG92','PER1903';
%let vector2=%sysfunc(translate(%quote(&vector1),%str(  ),%str(%',)));
%put &=vector1;
%put &=vector2;

The second percent sign in %str(%',) is needed to indicate to the macro processor that this is text that is a single unmatched quote. The comma following is also needed as you want to convert both single quote and comma to blanks. See https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmmvacdc/9.4/mcrolref/n09tblrxldh8k0n1kt6dkj3xlxug.htm