topic Re: How to pass a column from a table as a parameter in a macro in SAS Programming

How to pass a column from a table as a parameter in a macro

Apprentice — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 12:24:29 GMT

How can I pass a table column as a parameter in a macro?

Example of what I intend to do:

data xyz;

input userid;

datalines;

;

run;

%macro looper (userid);

...

%mend looper;

Re: How to pass a column from a table as a parameter in a macro

RW9 — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 12:37:42 GMT

Thats exactly the way. Describe further what you problems are, test data/required output is also good.

Re: How to pass a column from a table as a parameter in a macro

Astounding — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 13:43:56 GMT

Do you want to call %LOOPER just once, or do you want to call it for each observation in XYZ?

Re: How to pass a column from a table as a parameter in a macro

Apprentice — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 21:02:26 GMT

I want to call % LOOPER for each observation in table XYZ

Re: How to pass a column from a table as a parameter in a macro

RW9 — Fri, 01 May 2015 07:53:52 GMT

data _null_;

set XYZ;

call execute('%looper ('||strip(user)||');');

run;

However there are probably better ways of doing it, but without the rest of the information its hard to say.

Re: How to pass a column from a table as a parameter in a macro

data_null__ — Fri, 01 May 2015 11:27:36 GMT

One again I will remind you of the importance of timing with the macro language and the fact that CALL EXECUTE has subtleties that most do NOT understand.

The following example uses the %NRSTR macro quoting function to mask the macro statement. This function will delay the execution of macro statements until after a step boundary.

call execute('%nrstr(%sales('||month||'))');

While it may not matter for the programs that you write we have not seen the OP's program and have no idea what the OP will come up with.

SAS(R) 9.4 Macro Language: Reference, Third Edition

Re: How to pass a column from a table as a parameter in a macro

Apprentice — Fri, 01 May 2015 13:42:22 GMT

Thanks; this will do it.

Re: How to pass a column from a table as a parameter in a macro

sbb — Fri, 01 May 2015 19:20:25 GMT

It would be considerate as well to explain why you want to perform such processing, as much as there may be a more effective / efficient technical approach - specifically what is your objective and how might you intend to use the SAS observation content with each macro invocation? It appears that LOOPER is intended to be a code-piece executed within the SAS DATA step you have illustrated, although you have the %MACRO %MEND definition coded after the RUN; statement which will most definitely short-circuit the processing you desire to achieve.