topic Re: <> symbols in SAS Programming

<> symbols in documentation

HeatherNewton — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 08:49:20 GMT

COLLATE (start-position<,end-position> ) | (start-position<,,length> )

I find these syntax hard to understand . I dont get the < > symbols.

why start-position<

and why end-position>

why length>

what is going on

this applies to every command definition..not just collate

Re: <> symbols

PeterClemmensen — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 08:24:59 GMT

It means that the arguements in <> are optional and not required. You can see this below the Syntax Definition in the Optional Arguments Section.

Re: <> symbols

HeatherNewton — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 03:22:59 GMT

but the come is confusing, why<,end-position>, seems < > not referring to the same term

what is <,,xxx>

why the comma not outside the brackets < >

Re: <> symbols

SASKiwi — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 05:22:02 GMT

@HeatherNewton wrote:

but the come is confusing, why<,end-position>, seems < > not referring to the same term

what is <,,xxx>

why the comma not outside the brackets < >

Because if you don't specify that parameter you also don't include the comma. Including the comma without the parameter results in a syntax error.

Re: <> symbols in documentation

Tom — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 03:10:06 GMT

Why not read the documentation on how to read the documentation? Here is one from the SAS GRAPH manual but I suspect this description is in all of the manuals. https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.4/grstatgraph/p06hgx459w75qen1wpavfghx4ket.htm

Just expand it to multiple lines if you are having trouble understanding the compressed syntax.

COLLATE (start-position)

COLLATE (start-position,end-position )

COLLATE (start-position)

COLLATE (start-position,,length)

Not sure why they listed that one version with only one argument supplied twice.

Might have been simpler to use something like:

COLLATE (start-position<,end-position> ) | (start-position,,length )

Re: <> symbols

Tom — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 14:41:36 GMT

Do you not see the difference between these two forms?

collate(1,5)
collate(1,,5)

The first one has TWO arguments and the second one has THREE arguments, but the second argument is empty.