topic Re: How do I get EG editor to recognize my SAS macros for autocompletion? in SAS Enterprise Guide

How do I get EG editor to recognize my SAS macros for autocompletion?

mftuchman — Fri, 18 May 2018 12:50:22 GMT

Please note: This is not about editor Macros or abbreviations. I am NOT interested any editor-based abbreviation or editor -macro solution to this. (Although they are admittedly helpful, that's out of scope).

I have a number of macros defined, that are loaded in autoexec process flow. As of version 7.15 HF3 (7.100.5.6132) (32-bit), I am not seeing my macros autocomplete when I type in their name in the editor. Also:

Autocomplete is already turned on via the tools > Editor Options menu path.
I use "third character" autocomplete

As an example, I have

%macro meantable(x= /* data table */,y=/* statistics used */,z=/* version */);

...<stuff>

%mend;

I would like to type %mea and have the word %meantable (and any other macros defined that start with the characters mea) appear in the editor. After I type in the open paren, I'd like to see the integrated documentation for x,y, and z.

Currently this is not happening.

Re: How do I get EG editor to recognize my SAS macros for autocompletion?

ChrisHemedinger — Fri, 18 May 2018 12:52:17 GMT

Hi @mftuchman,

Currently, the editor offers syntax suggestions only for SAS macros that are defined within the current editor view (your open program). While the editor does scan the SAS environment for possible libnames, data sets, and variable names, it does not scan the macro function table nor the SASAUTOS path for potential macros you could call.

I'm not sure if that's on the roadmap -- knowing a bit of the internals, I'd say it's a tricky one to solve. But perhaps someone from the dev team can chime in.

Chris

Re: How do I get EG editor to recognize my SAS macros for autocompletion?

mftuchman — Fri, 18 May 2018 13:23:48 GMT

Good point - calling them syntax suggestions makes it clearer what I mean.
Now, it is possible to get syntax suggestions for system macros such as
%sysevalf, so why not user-defined ones? Since I like to auto source my
macros, they would lie in a different directory than my main SAS code.