topic Re: Macro cycle 1 is fine, fails on cycle 2 in SAS Programming

Macro cycle 1 is fine, fails on cycle 2

MeganE — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 17:36:41 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to run this code and it runs through the mod=1 cycle just fine. No errors. But the minute it gets to %mod(mod=2), then it says:

ERROR: All positional parameters must precede keyword parameters.
41 %mod(mod=2);

/*Add three variables from the PayerOnESRD dataset to the ALL $Ds and split out for M and N.*/
%macro mod(mod=);
   %macro splitd(lib=,type=,chgdt=,chgtype=);
   %do year4=&start. %to &end.;
       %let yr = %eval(%substr(&year4,3,2));

       proc sql;
           create table &lib..inc_&mod.y&yr. as
           select a.*,
                   b.esrdpaystat as paystat,
                   b.&chgdt. as paychgdt,
                   b.&chgtype. as paychgtype
           from ialld.in_&mod.y&yr. a left join pay.payeronesrd b
           on a.kecc_id=b.kecc_id
           where ESRDM="&type.";
       quit;
   %end;
   %mend splitd;
   %splitd(lib=imd,   type=M,   chgdt=M2NMChgDt,   chgtype=m2nmchgtype);
   %splitd(lib=inmd,   type=NM,chgdt=NM2MChgDt,   chgtype=nm2mchgtype);
%mend;
%mod(mod=1);
%mod(mod=2);
%mod(mod=5);
%mod(mod=6);

Re: Macro cycle 1 is fine, fails on cycle 2

Astounding — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 18:04:04 GMT

Absolute speculation ...

Purely a wild guess ...

It looks like you are willing to use a system of defining macros within another macro (usually frowned upon!). Also, I imagine that you have simplified your code to make your question manageable in size. So, what I suspect ...

Within your system of macros calling macros, one of the macros redefines the meaning of %MOD. So the second time, it means something totally different than what it did the first time.

Re: Macro cycle 1 is fine, fails on cycle 2

MeganE — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 18:10:01 GMT

I nest macros quite often.... *looks around questioningly...*

And no, it was a straight copy paste of the code.

What do you mean im redefining the meaning of %mod. Where? It's just used for the naming of files. I did re-try it, by changing the outer macro to %modx instead, wondering if using the same name for the macro and the macro var was causing it, but i still got the same error.

EDIT: The only part of the actual code i left out from the above copy were the values of &start and &end and the libnames. 1978 and 2015.

Re: Macro cycle 1 is fine, fails on cycle 2

russt_sas — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 18:46:09 GMT

I ran the code and was unable to replicate your error. Could you run it again in a new SAS session and attach the new log?

Re: Macro cycle 1 is fine, fails on cycle 2

MeganE — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 18:54:48 GMT

Weird, it didn't crash this time.

Cripes. Ok, thanks!

Re: Macro cycle 1 is fine, fails on cycle 2

FreelanceReinh — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 19:12:24 GMT

Hi @MeganE,

Normally, this error message occurs only if you specify something in a macro call which SAS interprets as a positional parameter.

Examples:

%mod(mod=1,2);
%mod(mod=1,);

Typically in such cases, people try to pass a value containing a comma to a keyword parameter and forget to quote the comma or the entire value (e.g. by using the %STR function).