topic Re: How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro in SAS Programming

How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro

tobyfarms — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 17:38:06 GMT

I want to import a table from a url that has dynamic characters, but the code I have below is not working. Is there a doable fix?

%let var1=2017;

%let var2='NC'; %let var9='Cary'; /

filename myfile url "http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_rstablew.pl?ID=AA&year=&var1&task=0&state=&var2&place=&var9" lrecl=32767;

here is the original url::

filename myfile url "http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_rstablew.pl?ID=AA&year=2017&task=0&state=NC&place=Cary" lrecl=32767;

Re: How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro

collinelliot — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 17:46:41 GMT

There is no need to quote your macro variables NC and Cary.

%let var9= Cary;

Re: How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro

tobyfarms — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 17:59:50 GMT

Awesome - I believe that resolved my issue (and error). Many Thanks!

Re: How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro

Reeza — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 18:03:56 GMT

@tobyfarms Please mark @collinelliot solution as correct.

Re: How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro

tobyfarms — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 18:12:01 GMT

Thanks for letting me know. New to the process!

Re: How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro

tobyfarms — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 18:30:50 GMT

@collinelliot in my next data step, my place holders for city and step are not populating. where I would list:
state=&var2;
City=&var9;

Is there a fix for this also?

Re: How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro

collinelliot — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 18:32:13 GMT

Yep, now you can quote them with double quotes:

state = "&var2"; etc.

Re: How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro

Reeza — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 18:42:42 GMT

@tobyfarms Remember that macro variables work as find/replace text but that the code resulting MUST be valid SAS syntax. In your current questions once you replace the macro variables your code is not valid. You can see this by easily replacing the macro variable in place and you see the errors.

First one:

%let var1=2017;

%let var2='NC'; %let var9='Cary'; /

filename myfile url "http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_rstablew.pl?ID=AA&year=&var1&task=0&state=&var2&place=&var9" lrecl=32767;

Replaced (you can see the extra quotations in comparison to your posted URL):

filename myfile url "http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_rstablew.pl?ID=AA&year=2017&task=0&state='NC'&place='Cary'" lrecl=32767;

Second one:

state=&var2;
City=&var9;

Replaced:

state=NC; -> this expects NC to be a variable since no quotations now.
City=Cary;

Re: How to create a dymanic URL variable within a SAS macro

tobyfarms — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 19:06:52 GMT

Yes, that makes sense. However, when I do not use quotations or place VAR9, I reviece "." as the city & state columns of my results.

The reason I am trying to use the macro is because I have to do this for multiple locations (which can vary in the future).

THANKS!!!