topic Re: Libname statement not finding folder with macro variable in SAS Programming

Libname statement not finding folder with macro variable

Dougall — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 20:03:59 GMT

I am trying to dynamically create a SAS library. A new folder is created every day, title is date and time I.e yyyymmddhhmmss.
An example title would be 20160114134615 (no letters in the folder name)
I pipe in the directory structure, get the folder name I need, and allocate to a macro variable called CheckFolder using an sql select into: statement.
I then try
Libname Sample "&samplePath\&CheckFolder";
I receive NOTE: Library SAMPLE does not exist.
If I were to use :
Libname Sample "&samplePath\20160114134615";
It creates the library no problem.

I have checked the &samplepath variable, there are no issues there.

Is there some general reason this statement fails?

PS: sorry for not posting code, no internet access on my computer so I had to post this from my phone.

Re: Libname statement not finding folder with macro variable

Reeza — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 20:17:49 GMT

Run the libname statement with the MPRINT and SYMBOLGEN options turned on. It will show what the log is trying to submit and where the error is.

It's possible you need a period (.) after the macro variable to force it to resolve properly.

Libname Sample "&samplePath.\&CheckFolder.";

Re: Libname statement not finding folder with macro variable

Astounding — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 20:52:41 GMT

Your tests clearly narrow the problem down to the value of &CheckFolder.

One of the red flags is that &CheckFolder gets created by SQL into. It's possible that SQL performs a numeric to character conversion when assigning the value. That might introduce leading blanks, or possibly conversion to scientific notation. Check what you are getting:

%put **&CheckFolder**;

Re: Libname statement not finding folder with macro variable

Tom — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 22:20:47 GMT

SAS character variables are fixed length fields, so make sure to use the TRIMMED option on the INTO clause.

select charvar_or_function
  into :CheckFolder trimmed
  from ....

Or add a step to remove the trailing spaces.

%let CheckFolder=&CheckFolder;

Re: Libname statement not finding folder with macro variable

Dougall — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 12:45:28 GMT

Symbolgen caught the issue, when I formatted the piped in data I was just dropping a single digit from the CheckFolder variable. Thank you all for the help!