Talk like a pirate: using a fun API and PROC HTTP

ChrisHemedinger — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 12:35:52 GMT

On this Talk Like A Pirate Day, I decided to share a fun example of how to use SAS and a fun free API to generate some pirate-y insults and translations. For these I'm leveraging the APIs I found here: https://pirate.monkeyness.com/api.html.

The format is simple: use PROC HTTP to call the API, capture the output in a text file, and then read that into a data set:

filename rrr temp; proc http url="https://pirate.monkeyness.com/api/insult" out=rrr; run; data insult; infile rrr; length insult $ 255; input; insult=_infile_; run; filename rrr clear;

Run that once to get one good-natured pirate insult. Want a bunch of these? Here's a macro routine to get more:

/* Insults! */ %macro pirateInsults(howMany); %do i=1 %to &howMany.; filename rrr temp; proc http url="https://pirate.monkeyness.com/api/insult" out=rrr; run; data r_&i; infile rrr; length insult $ 255; input; insult=_infile_; run; filename rrr clear; %end; /* combine insults into compendium */ data insults; set r_:; run; /* delete temp data */ proc datasets lib=work nodetails nolist; delete r_:; quit; %mend; %pirateInsults(5);

This team offers a similar API for translations. This code translates English to "Pirate":

%let phrase=Hey! You! Get off of my boat.; filename rrr temp; proc http url="https://pirate.monkeyness.com/api/translate?english=%sysfunc(urlencode(&phrase))" out=rrr; run; data r; infile rrr; length insult $ 255; input; insult=_infile_; run; filename rrr clear;

Output: "Ahoy! Ye! Get off o' me ship."

We can drive more phrases through using SAS macro and CALL EXECUTE.

data inputs; infile datalines dsd; length english $ 200; input english; datalines; I know what you did Get your hands off of my treasure Hey! You! Get off of my boat. ; run; %macro pirateTranslate(phrase,n); filename rrr temp; proc http url="https://pirate.monkeyness.com/api/translate?english=%sysfunc(urlencode(&phrase))" out=rrr; run; data r_&n; infile rrr; length pirate $ 255; input; pirate=_infile_; run; filename rrr clear; %mend; data _null_; set inputs; call execute('%pirateTranslate('||english||','||_n_||');'); run; data allTranslations; set r_:; run; /* delete temp data */ proc datasets lib=work nodetails nolist; delete r_:; quit;

Got your own examples? Ahoy! Share it w' the crew!

topic Talk like a pirate: using a fun API and PROC HTTP in SAS Programming

Talk like a pirate: using a fun API and PROC HTTP