topic format of call symput in SAS Programming

format of call symput

echoli — Thu, 11 May 2017 20:57:42 GMT

Hi All,

I have a column variable named Pvalue, then I use call symput to output a value. for example:

I have a simple dataset below:

variable Pvalue Pvalue_1

score 0.00003 <0.001

math 0.02 0.02

The format of Pvalue_1 is Pvalue5.3 get from Pvalue.

I am using below code to output a variable's value:

data _null_;
set scatter1;
if variable="score";
call symput("P", Pvalue_1);
run;
%put (&P);

But the output P is 0.00003 not <0.001

Any idea to solve this? I want p is <0.001.

Thanks,

Re: format of call symput

PeterClemmensen — Thu, 11 May 2017 21:03:18 GMT

A very small correction to your code solves this:

data scatter1;
input variable $ Pvalue Pvalue_1 $;
datalines;
score 0.00003 <0.001
math 0.02 0.02
;

data _null_;
   set scatter1;
   if variable="score" then call symput("P", Pvalue_1);
run;
%put (&P);

Re: format of call symput

ballardw — Thu, 11 May 2017 22:46:18 GMT

If you do not specify a Format for your numeric variable then the result is converted using BEST fromat

Macro variables only handle text so you need to tell SAS exactly which text you want.

Try

call symput("P", Put( Pvalue_1, pvalue6.3));

That will have a trailing 0 for 0.020 but should not be a problem for most uses.

You may want to consider using Call SYMPUTX to reduce the chances of unwanted leading spaces in some uses.

Re: format of call symput

echoli — Thu, 11 May 2017 21:19:01 GMT

Yes, that works!!

Thanks so much!!!!