topic Re: bquote VS str in SAS Programming

bquote VS str

Sathya3 — Mon, 13 May 2024 05:43:26 GMT

Can someone please explain difference between bquote and str in sas with a working example.I am aware of theoretical difference between them.

But ,I want to understand with example which shows why str can't be used in place of bquote

Re: bquote VS str

PaigeMiller — Mon, 13 May 2024 09:51:07 GMT

https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/mcrolref/1.0/p1780jrqrtwtw7n16x83peo2zpxr.htm, which says:

%QUOTE and %NRQUOTE mask the same items as %STR and %NRSTR, respectively. However, %STR and %NRSTR mask constant text instead of a resolved value. And, %STR and %NRSTR work when a macro compiles, and %QUOTE and %NRQUOTE work when a macro executes.

Constant text is text which will not change. Resolved values are inside a macro variable, and could change when the value of the macro variable changes.

Also:

https://blogs.sas.com/content/sgf/2014/08/15/macro-quoting-made-easy/

which says "If you can see the problem, it is a compile issue (use %str or %nrstr); otherwise, it is execution time (use %bquote or %superq)". Please see the examples.

Re: bquote VS str

BrunoMueller — Mon, 13 May 2024 09:56:05 GMT

Take this program

%let unknownContent = a,b,c;
%put NOTE: word 2 is %scan(%str(&unknownContent), 2, %str(,)); 
%put NOTE: word 2 is %scan(%bquote(&unknownContent), 2, %str(,));

As general rule, if you can see the "difficult" characters in your code use %STR as in the example of the %SCAN function third argument, the "," is a "difficult" character so we use %STR so it is not treated as part of the code, but just as a "normal" comma.

If you can not see the "difficult" characters in your code as in the second %SCAN example use %BQUOTE.

For a more detailed explanation check this blog post https://blogs.sas.com/content/sgf/2014/08/15/macro-quoting-made-easy/

Re: bquote VS str

ballardw — Mon, 13 May 2024 14:31:31 GMT

For what very little it may be worth, If I find myself looking for the difference between any of the macro quoting functions the next step is to rethink the problem as I may be trying to "fix" something that would be better off not existing in the first place.