topic Re: SAS macro variable in SAS Enterprise Guide

SAS macro variable

guptagaurav12 — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:50:50 GMT

I have a macro variable to store decimal values upto 10 places and then create a dataset with a column consisting of that values.

But I am facing a problem as the macro variable is not storing the value upto 10 decimal places and I can't find a way to give format or something to the macro Variable so that it can store the exact same value provided to it and then pass that value to the new dataset created.

how can I store values upto 10 decimal places in a macro variable..??

Re: SAS macro variable

PaigeMiller — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:55:36 GMT

You need to be much more specific and give an example of your code and example showing the data, so we can see what you are doing and what is not working.

But ... I agree with the usual advice in this forum ... macro is primarily a text processor, it shouldn't normally be used for numbers ... so my guess is that there is a non-macro solution that will work better for you.

Re: SAS macro variable

Kurt_Bremser — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:57:24 GMT

You can store values up to 65534 characters in a macro variable, so the length is not your problem.

I guess that you are losing digits on the conversion to numeric because you are exceeding the numeric precision inherent in 64-bit real numbers (~15 decimal digits).

Please post some values that don't work, and the code you used.

Re: SAS macro variable

RW9 — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 12:06:42 GMT

Macro varibles are text and hence can contain anything. Where is the data coming in from? There are a number of methods of reading data into SAS, be it from text files, Excel, databases. Macro variables however are not a data medium, but a method of find/replace code generation. Perhaps show where you get this data from and handle it.

Re: SAS macro variable

Tom — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 12:20:39 GMT

Most likely you have let SAS convert the number to a character string to store into the macro variable and it has defaulted to using BEST12. format for the conversion. Use your own format instead.

call symputx('mymvar',put(myvar,best32.));

Re: SAS macro variable

guptagaurav12 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 04:17:41 GMT

i have a column named FIRST with a value 0.0328565628 and I am storing this in a macro variable xyz and then this value is stored in another column named SECOND but when I am creating a third column named THIRD which is equal to FIRST/SECOND then it is giving a value of 0.999999 but I am expecting this to be complete 1 because logically both the columns FIRST and SECOND are exact same.

I can't understand the reason for this.

Hope someone can help. 🙂

Re: SAS macro variable

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 06:28:14 GMT

@guptagaurav12 wrote:

i have a column named FIRST with a value 0.0328565628 and I am storing this in a macro variable xyz and then this value is stored in another column named SECOND but when I am creating a third column named THIRD which is equal to FIRST/SECOND then it is giving a value of 0.999999 but I am expecting this to be complete 1 because logically both the columns FIRST and SECOND are exact same.

I can't understand the reason for this.

Hope someone can help. 🙂

Please post your code and some example data (like:

data have;
input first;
cards;
0.0328565628
;
run;

Re: SAS macro variable

guptagaurav12 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 06:49:23 GMT

data have;
input first;
cards;0.0328565628;
run;

Data have ;
set have ;
call symput('OBSERVEDAVGVAR',  ObservedAverages); 

run ;

Data Have2 ;
Set have ;

Second = &OBSERVEDAVGVAR ;

Run ;

Data have3 ;
Set have2 ;

Third = First/Second ;

Run ;

Re: SAS macro variable

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:00:16 GMT

Please test your example code yourself before posting it here.

There is no variable ObservedAverages in dataset have, so the macrovar ends up empty.

Re: SAS macro variable

guptagaurav12 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:14:12 GMT

Sorry My Mistake.

data have;
input first;
cards;0.0328565628;
run;Data have ;
set have ;
call symput('OBSERVEDAVGVAR',  First); 

run ;

Data Have2 ;
Set have ;

Second = &OBSERVEDAVGVAR ;

Run ;

Data have3 ;
Set have2 ;

Third = First/Second ;

Run ;

Re: SAS macro variable

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:26:44 GMT

I see no problem here:

data have;
input first;
cards;
0.0328565628
;
run;

data _null_;
set have;
call symput('OBSERVEDAVGVAR',first);
run;

%put &OBSERVEDAVGVAR;

data have2;
set have;
second = &OBSERVEDAVGVAR;
run;

data have3;
set have2;
third = first / second;
format third best32.;
if third = 1 then flag = 'yes';
run;

proc print data=have3 noobs;
run;

Result:

  first      second                                third    flag

0.032857    0.032857                                   1    yes

Not only does third display as 1, it is really equal to 1, as the conditional statement shows.

Re: SAS macro variable

guptagaurav12 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:33:29 GMT

Sorry clicked on Accept as Solution by mistake.

Ya it should display one but it displays 1 for only first row and from second row onwards it display 0.99999.

can't understand why..??

Re: SAS macro variable

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:36:39 GMT

@guptagaurav12 wrote:

Sorry clicked on Accept as Solution by mistake.

Ya it should display one but it displays 1 for only first row and from second row onwards it display 0.99999.

can't understand why..??

When there's different outcomes with the same code, then the reason is in the data. Please post the real values that cause the erratic behaviour.

If in doubt, use the macro provided in https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/How-to-create-a-data-step-version-of-your-data-AKA-generate/ta-p/258712 to convert your data to a data step for posting. This method will preserve values as they are (not as they are displayed)

Re: SAS macro variable

guptagaurav12 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:55:54 GMT

Is there a way I can send my DataSet.

I am using SAS EG 9.4.

Re: SAS macro variable

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 08:02:52 GMT

@guptagaurav12 wrote:

Is there a way I can send my DataSet.

I am using SAS EG 9.4.

Yes. Use the macro from the link I gave you. This is the proper method for posting example data that will preserve data and attributes, clear all firewalls, and not cause a problem because of incompatible SAS versions (DBCS vs. SBCS vs. UTF-8, little/big-endian).

Re: SAS macro variable

guptagaurav12 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 08:47:31 GMT

I used the macro

%data2datastep(cars,sashelp,,5)

and created a new dataset but couldn't find it anywhere.

what should I do..??

Re: SAS macro variable

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 08:58:44 GMT

You need to supply the dataset and library name of your dataset to the macro (1st and 2nd parameter). You should also supply a filename as the third parameter; place this file in your shared folder (if you use SAS UE) - ie "/folders/myfolder/dataset.sas", so you can find it from your Windows desktop. The 4th parameter sets the number of observations that will go into the datastep.

Then open the file from your desktop with a text editor and copy/paste its contents into a code window.

Re: SAS macro variable

guptagaurav12 — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 09:09:56 GMT

I did this >

%include '\act$\data2datastep.sas' /lrecl=1000;
%data2datastep(check, Actshare,Checking, 100);

Then I got this in log

NOTE: The file "Checking" is:
Filename=D:\sasconf\Config\Lev1\SASApp\Checking,
RECFM=V,LRECL=32767,File Size (bytes)=0,
Last Modified=10 August 2017 14:06:00,
Create Time=10 August 2017 14:06:00

NOTE: 105 records were written to the file "Checking".
The minimum record length was 4.
The maximum record length was 39.
NOTE: There were 100 observations read from the data set ACTSHARE.CHECK.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

Now I am not getting what to do next

Re: SAS macro variable

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 09:22:45 GMT

So you positively do not use SAS UE.

Is that D:\ drive on a server, or do you have SAS locally installed on your 😧 drive?

If the latter, just open the Checking file with a text editor (from WIndows Explorer) and copy/paste the contents here.

If it's on a server, you need to specify a path to your "home" directory, so you can open the file with EG or SAS Studio from there.

Re: SAS macro variable

guptagaurav12 — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 04:25:30 GMT

But the problem is I cannot locate the file named Checking anywhere in my PC.