Symget vs Resolve

kaushal2040 — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 04:14:19 GMT

Hello Forum,

I was trying to understand difference between Symget and Resolve function in macro facility (if there are examples).

Thanks !!!

Re: Symget vs Resolve

SASKiwi — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 04:42:26 GMT

More Like This to the right of your post - does this help?

ballardw — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 16:06:40 GMT

From the documentation:

RESOLVE resolves the value of a text expression during execution of a DATA
step or SCL program, whereas a macro variable reference resolves when a DATA
step is being constructed or an SCL program is being compiled. For this reason,
the resolved value of a macro variable reference is constant during execution of
a DATA step or SCL program. However, RESOLVE can return a different value for a
text expression in each iteration of the program.
RESOLVE accepts a wider variety of arguments than the SYMGET function
accepts. SYMGET resolves only a single macro variable but RESOLVE resolves any
macro expression. Using RESOLVE might result in the execution of macros and
resolution of more than one macro variable.
When a macro variable value contains an additional macro variable reference,
RESOLVE attempts to resolve the reference, but SYMGET does not.
If argument references a nonexistent macro
variable, RESOLVE returns the unresolved reference, whereas SYMGET returns a
missing value.
Because of its greater flexibility, RESOLVE requires slightly more computer
resources than SYMGET.