topic Re: Generate file name conditionally in Macro in SAS Programming

Generate file name conditionally in Macro

Abdu — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 17:17:42 GMT

Hi All,

I have been struggling for a long time to handle string in Macro. I want to generate a data set name according the system file. Simply, I want to generate a file named ABCXXX. XXX is from ABC001 to ABC999. If the name exists, generate the next one with number adding 1. here is what I tried to do: (I want &DsOut is a file name that is not existing in system.)

%IF &DsOut= %THEN %DO;

%DO I=1 %TO 999;

%LET DsOut = %SYSFUNC(CATS("ABC_", %SYSFUNC(PUT(&I, Z3.))));

%IF %SYSFUNC(exist(&DsOut)) NE 0 %THEN %DO;

%GOTO LEAVE;

%END;

%LEAVE:

%END;

Apparently this does not work at all. Does anyone have any suggestions or you have some example code? Thanks.

Abdu

Re: Generate file name conditionally in Macro

Tom — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:10:08 GMT

To concatenate macro variable values you just need to reference the macro. There is no need for a function like || or CAT() as you would have to do in regular SAS code or other programming languages.

%if &dsout= %then %do i=1 %to 999;

%let dsout = ABC_%sysfunc(put(&i, z3.)) ;

%if %sysfunc(exist(&dsout)) %then %goto leave;

%end;

%leave:

Re: Generate file name conditionally in Macro

Abdu — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:21:07 GMT

Hi Tom,

Thank you for your response. I tried the code. It renerate error message:

ERROR: The PUT function referenced in the %SYSFUNC or %QSYSFUNC macro function is not found.

I am using SAS 9.2. Is there something I missed?

Thanks,

Abdu

Re: Generate file name conditionally in Macro

Tom — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:36:44 GMT

You must use PUTN() with %SYSFUNC(). Note to apply a character format use PUTC().

Re: Generate file name conditionally in Macro

Abdu — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:44:42 GMT

Thank you very much, Tom.

I am wondering that is there any good reference that I can read for this kind of information?

Best regards,

Abdu.