topic Retrieve value from a macro variable to another macro variable uing a macro/loop in SAS Enterprise Guide

Retrieve value from a macro variable to another macro variable uing a macro/loop

ayin — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 00:54:25 GMT

There are a bunch of global macro variables with assigned value.

I would like to use a loop to do some stuff in a macro. At the beginning of the macro, will need to define a new macro variable, and retrieve value from those global macro variables.

My code is:

%let Period_1 = 11;
%let Period_2 = 22;
%let Period_3 = 33;
%global Period_temp;

%macro test;

%do _j=1 %to 3;

%let Period_temp = &&&(Period_&_j);           /* something might be wrong here */
...

	%end;
%mend test;
%test;

%PUT _ALL_;
run;

/* The log shows:

GLOBAL PERIOD_1 11
GLOBAL PERIOD_2 22
GLOBAL PERIOD_3 33
GLOBAL PERIOD_TEMP &(Period_3)          /* which is not 33 */

*/

Clearly Period_temp is not picking up 'the numeric value', i.e. 11, 22, or 33.

How should I change the code?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What if I want Period_temp to be some calculation result involving Period_1, Period_2, Period_3?

e.g. Period_temp = 11 + 22 * 33; How should I change the code?

Re: Retrieve value from a macro variable to another macro variable uing a macro/loop

Astounding — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 04:03:13 GMT

To retrieve a global variable:

%let period_temp = &&period_&j;

The calculation you want isn't clear. Did you really intend to apply both addition and multiplication?

Assuming you want &PERIOD_TEMP to be 11, then 33, then 66 (the cumulative value of all the global variables so far), you could code:

%global period_temp;

%let period_temp=0;

Then within the macro:

%let period_temp = %eval(&period_temp + &&period_&j);

If you actually mean to use the formula you posted, you could simply code:

%let period_temp = %eval(&period_1 + &period_2 * &period_3);

The %EVAL function is what forces macro language to perform the calculations.

Re: Retrieve value from a macro variable to another macro variable uing a macro/loop

RW9 — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 10:05:52 GMT

Why are you putting numeric "data" into text based macros? It would benefit you far greater to put your period timepoint "data" in "datasets" - clue is in the name. Then you can use merging (joining), lookups, datasteps and such like to work on the data. Macro is a find/replace system, which modifies the actual text code sent to the compiler, it is not a data processing utility. For instance, in a datastep you could do:

data want;
  do i=11, 22, 33;
    put _all_;
  end;
run;

Much simpler, easier to understand code.