topic Macro in SAS Enterprise Guide

Macro

anaroca12 — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:16:18 GMT

Hi!

I am trying to do a macro because I need a value for doing an array.

proc sql ;
select max(count(a,'#'))
into :max
from provisiones;

%put &max;

data test2 (drop=_: i);
set b ;
array a(%put &max;);

when I do the proc sql it´s okey and it returns me a number but when I run the next code it says that ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: una constante entera, *.

so my value in the proc sql doesn´t look like a constant. What can i do??

thanks in advance,

Re: Macro

PeterClemmensen — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:21:32 GMT

@anaroca12 Hi and welcome to the SAS Community 🙂

I assume that you want to compute some value in PROC SQL, save that in a macro variable and set up an array in a data step with the number of entries specified by that value.

If so, then use this as a template. Basically, just drop the %put statement from within the array definition.

proc sql noprint;
   select max(age) into :max
   from sashelp.class;
quit;

%put &max.;

data test;
   set sashelp.class;
   array a{&max.};
run;

Re: Macro

Kurt_Bremser — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:25:32 GMT

%put &max;

is just a macro statement that writes the value of &max to the log. Aside from that, it does nothing, and results in nothing. So your statement turns out to be

array a();

which is not valid syntax.

You need to simply use the macro variable:

array a(&max.);

For the usage of the dot, see Maxim 48.

Re: Macro

anaroca12 — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:26:47 GMT

Yes, it´s perfect!! many thanks!! this was my first macro 🙂

Re: Macro

PeterClemmensen — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:28:39 GMT

@anaroca12 Cool stuff 🙂 I'm sure there are many more to come.