topic Re: #BYVAL doesn't work in footnote statement? in SAS Programming

#BYVAL doesn't work in footnote statement?

Quentin — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 18:30:24 GMT

I'm using #BYVAL in a footnote statement in 9.4M3. Looks like the footnote is reporting the value of the next by-group rather than the current by group. It works as expected in the title statement.

proc sort data=sashelp.class out=class;
  by sex;
run;

options nobyline;

proc report data=class nowd;
  by sex;
  title1 "below is print out of: #BYVAL1";
  footnote1 "above is print out of: #BYVAL1";;
run;

Looks like same issue as:

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-GRAPH-and-ODS-Graphics/SG-ODS-RTF-BODYTITLE-BYVAL-in-FOOTNOTE-statement/m-p/179260#M6588

I tried in 9.3 and get the same result.

Does this mean that #BYVAL doesn't work well for footnotes?

Re: #BYVAL doesn't work in footnote statement?

Astounding — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 18:49:37 GMT

Just to add to the merriment, when I test your program (Unix/Linux), I'm getting a footnote that includes the characters "#BYVAL1" without the value of the variable.

Re: #BYVAL doesn't work in footnote statement?

BrunoMueller — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 21:35:25 GMT

According to the documentation, the #BYVAL, #BYVAR etc. are only available for the TITLE statement, but not in the FOOTNOTE statement.

See here

TITLE, http://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=lestmtsref&docsetTarget=p10gcmrmf83iaxn1ilrx4pra969n.htm&docsetVersion=9.4&locale=en

FOOTNOTE, http://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=lestmtsref&docsetTarget=n0wh407rnaleinn1rqyudxuzhkhu.htm&docsetVersion=9.4&locale=en

So works as documented.

One can argue, that one should get some sort of warning when using the #BY... in a FOOTNOTE statement.

Re: #BYVAL doesn't work in footnote statement?

art297 — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 23:55:13 GMT

@Quentin: If you don't mind deleting two pages, the following will produce the desired result:

proc sort data=sashelp.class out=class;
  by sex;
run;

data class;
  set class;
  by sex;
  x=0;
  if last.sex then do;
    output;
    x=1;
    output;
  end;
  else output;
run;

options nobyline;

proc report data=class nowd;
  by sex x;
  title1 "below is print out of: #BYVAL1";
  footnote1 "above is print out of: #BYVAL1";
run;

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

Re: #BYVAL doesn't work in footnote statement?

Quentin — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 13:25:57 GMT

Thanks @art297, but in my setting of storted process making web reports, it isn't feasible to delete the extra pages.

Re: #BYVAL doesn't work in footnote statement?

BrunoMueller — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 13:31:27 GMT

If you need this information in the footnote statement, then I suggest you have a look at programming pattern described by @ChrisHemedinger, see his blog entries

http://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/2012/03/20/sas-program-by-processing/

and

http://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/2012/03/23/improving-on-a-sas-programming-pattern/

Re: #BYVAL doesn't work in footnote statement?

Quentin — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 13:36:41 GMT

Thanks @BrunoMueller. That's an unfortunate surprise. I hadn't before thought about possible differences between TITLE statements and FOOTNOTE statements.

It interesting that in SAS/GRAPH, titles and footnotes are documented together http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/graphref/69717/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n19y35ila5aaysn1qor579h9vaak.htm, and from the related thread https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-GRAPH-and-ODS-Graphics/SG-ODS-RTF-BODYTITLE-BYVAL-in-FOOTNOTE-statement/m-p/179260#M6588 it looks like using #BYVAL in a SAS/GRAPH or SG plot footnote works, as long as you use GFOOTNOTE so that footnote is part of the graph. Maybe I'll put in a idea submisssion to get #BYVAL working in SAS BASE footnotes.

I haven't used #BYVAL much. But seems like often when I try, I end up backing away from it and resort to writing my own macro looping. Beause I ended up wanting to use that #BYVAL to somewhere like a footnote or a table of contents link, or a file name, or .... so &BYVAL becomes more flexible. But if I were still in the role of making statistical reports for internal users that didn't have to be pretty, I'm sure I would use #BYVAL more often.

Re: #BYVAL doesn't work in footnote statement?

Quentin — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 13:41:17 GMT

Thanks again @BrunoMueller. Yes, that's the sort of macro looping I generally use. But I thought for this project I might be in a setting where I could use the BY statement and benefit from the efficiency, so wanted to give it a shot. For now, I just moved by footnote to a subtitle to get it working. I'm sure by the end it will be refactored into macro looping like Chris showed.