topic Re: Macro %IF fails when variable has minus sign in SAS Programming

Macro %IF fails when variable has minus sign

milts — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 11:55:50 GMT

This is a very silly beginner question but would like to seek some advise. I'm getting this error when the value of the macro variable layer has a dash. Seems like it's still trying to evaluate it even I have placed %str.

This is the error I get and the code sample below.

ERROR: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is
required. The condition was: &layer = stg or &layer = stg-m

options symbolgen;
%let layer=stg-m;

%macro test;
	%if %str(&layer) = %str(stg) or %str(&layer) = %str(stg-m) %then %do;
		%put CORRECT;
	%end;
%mend;

%test;

Re: Macro %IF fails when variable has minus sign

LinusH — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 12:40:43 GMT

I guess that som quoting macro will work, but perhaps a simpler approach would to include single quotes in you macro variable values.

Re: Macro %IF fails when variable has minus sign

PaigeMiller — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 13:07:11 GMT

@milts wrote:

This is a very silly beginner question but would like to seek some advise. I'm getting this error when the value of the macro variable layer has a dash. Seems like it's still trying to evaluate it even I have placed %str.

This is the error I get and the code sample below.

ERROR: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is
required. The condition was: &layer = stg or &layer = stg-m
options symbolgen;
%let layer=stg-m;

%macro test;
	%if %str(&layer) = %str(stg) or %str(&layer) = %str(stg-m) %then %do;
		%put CORRECT;
	%end;
%mend;

%test;

You need to use %quote around &layer, and you don't need to include stg in the %str() function

%if %quote(&layer) = stg or %quote(&layer) = %str(stg-m) %then %do;

Re: Macro %IF fails when variable has minus sign

Astounding — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 13:34:16 GMT

A simple solution is to add double quotes around everything:

%if "&layer" = "stg" or "&layer" = "stg-m" %then %do;

The double quotes suppress macro language's urge to treat the dash as an instruction to subtract.

For this to work, you have to be careful to construct &LAYER with no leading or trailing blanks.

Re: Macro %IF fails when variable has minus sign

Ksharp — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 13:25:07 GMT

Yeah. minus is a special character for macro facility, you need mask it.

Since it is in a macro variable ,use %bquote() better. %str() is for string .

options symbolgen;
%let layer=stg-m;

%macro test;
	%if %bquote(&layer) = %str(stg) or %bquote(&layer) = %str(stg-m) %then %do;
		%put CORRECT;
	%end;
%mend;

%test

Re: Macro %IF fails when variable has minus sign

Ksharp — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 13:26:46 GMT

options symbolgen;
%let layer=stg-m;

%macro test/minoperator mindelimiter=' ';
	%if %bquote(&layer) in %str(stg) %str(stg-m) %then %do;
		%put CORRECT;
	%end;
%mend;

%test