topic Re: how to put the column length into a macro variable in SAS Enterprise Guide

how to put the column length into a macro variable

alepage — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 14:20:47 GMT

Data test;

length var1 $10 var2 $ 20 var3 $25;

run;

Data test;

set test;

var1="";

var2="";

var3="";

%let columnlength=round(ranuni(0)*25,1);

/*25 represent the column length of var3. The question is how to get this value to put it into this function. I would like to do the same for each variable*/

do i=1 to &ColumnLength.;

var3=catt(var3,byte(int(97+26*ranuni(0))));

end;

run;

Re: how to put the column length into a macro variable

RW9 — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 14:45:18 GMT

Use an array in your datastep, then use the vlength function to get the length and the call symputx function to create the macro variable (although why, and why the ranuni is another question).

data test;
  set test;
  array var{3};
  do i=1 to 3;
    call symputx(cats('var',put(i,best.)),vlength(var{i}));
  end;
run;

Re: how to put the column length into a macro variable

ballardw — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 14:51:53 GMT

I would guess the OP is attempting to get a random lower case letter if working on an ASCII system.

Re: how to put the column length into a macro variable

alepage — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:06:23 GMT

yes

Re: how to put the column length into a macro variable

alepage — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:07:04 GMT

Very simple!

Thank a lot