topic Re: Turn macro variable into a number in SAS Programming

Turn macro variable into a number

sleretrano — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 11:28:34 GMT

I want to use a macro variable in a WHERE condition in a PROC SQL, but I need to to be evaluated as a number because Var3 below is numeric.

%let horizon=201606:

PROC SQL;
CREATE TABLE CTX AS
SELECT Variables
FROM Table1 T1
LEFT JOIN Table2 T2 ON (T1.Var1=T2.Var1)
WHERE T2.Var3 le %EVAL(put(&Horizon.,6.));
QUIT;

How can I go about this?

Re: Turn macro variable into a number

Reeza — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 11:35:39 GMT

Macro variables are text not really char/numeric. They do literal text replacement.

The following will work:

Where t2.var3 LE &horizon;

If it doesn't work you may have a type mismatch and most likely var3 is numeric with a date format?

Re: Turn macro variable into a number

sleretrano — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 11:45:13 GMT

It did work, thanks. I hadn't thought of trying the most simple thing.