topic Re: Tricky combination of text and macro variables in SAS Procedures

Tricky combination of text and macro variables

keeks137 — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 19:36:58 GMT

Hey everyone-

I'm racking my brain on this one. I'm trying to use a do loop combined with arrays and macro variables to build out a dataset.

Let's assume that I have a series of cat variables (cat_1-cat_23) and dog variables (dog_1-dog_23) in my dataset that I'm attempting to manipulate in an array. I want to write a loop where the array uses the cat variables the first time through, and the dog variables the second time.

Here's how I'm attempting to build the code. I realize you can simplify this whole thing by attempting not to loop things, but for the more complicated application I'm attempting to use this for, looping is necessary.

%let prefix1=cat;

%let prefix2=dog;

%macro catsndogs;

data rewrite;

set my_data_set;

%do j=1 %to 2;

array array1

&&prefix&j._1-&&prefix&j._23;

array array2

total&j._1- total&j._23;

do i=1 to 23;

array2=array[1]-5;

end;

run;

%end;

%mend;

%catsndogs;

My instinct is that the first time through it would resolve things like this:

&&prefix&j._1 = &prefix1._1 = cat_1

Instead, it resolves like this:

&&prefix&j._1 = &prefix1_1 = This doesn't exist, so it bombs out.

How can I rig the syntax so that the syntax resolves to array array1

cat_1-cat_23 the first time, and array1

dog_1-dog_23 the second time?

Thanks!

Re: Tricky combination of text and macro variables

Astounding — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 19:45:27 GMT

You will have to modify your approach. Even if you overcome this error, you will get a DATA step error. The DATA step does not allow you to repeat the definition of the same array name. Even these statements would generate an error if they appeared in the same DATA step:

array array1 {23} cat_1 - cat_23;

If you were to change the second statement to use dog instead of cat, it would still generate the error. Array names cannot be defined more than once in the same DATA step.

To answer your original question, you need to add another dot, for example:

&&prefix&j.._1

The first dot delimits &j, the second delimits &prefix1/&prefix2.

Re: Tricky combination of text and macro variables

keeks137 — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:01:15 GMT

I think I just got it to work actually with the addition of the second period, so thanks much for that!!!

I'll be back to post my full code as soon as I get a moment, to show you the more complicated version. I'll also make sure it's working as I would expect.

Thanks again!

Re: Tricky combination of text and macro variables

Reeza — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:14:11 GMT

Consider defining a two dimensional array instead of 1?

Then use the j as the index for the second dimension?

Re: Tricky combination of text and macro variables

keeks137 — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 21:01:42 GMT

I'll look into this tomorrow.

Thanks for your help!

Re: Tricky combination of text and macro variables

keeks137 — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:21:26 GMT

I eventually ended up creating multiple datasets within the loop, and then merged them together. Here's the code I used:

%let groups=5;

%let pre1=cta;

%let qs1=23;

%let pre2=ctb;

%let qs2=18;

%let pre3=ctc;

%let qs3=4;

%let pre4=cm2;

%let qs4=24;

%let pre5=cf5;

%let qs5=13;

%macro profile;

%do j=1 %to &groups;

data rewrite&j (keep=occasions &&pre&j.._1-&&pre&j.._&&qs&j t_&&pre&j.._1-t_&&pre&j.._&&qs&j);

set step1;

array array1

&&pre&j.._1-&&pre&j.._&&qs&j;

array array2

t_&&pre&j.._1-t_&&pre&j.._&&qs&j;

do i=1 to &&qs&j;

if array1 = 5 then array2=1;

end;

run;

proc sort data=rewrite&j; by occasions; run;

%end;

%mend;

%profile;

data final_rewrite;

merge rewrite1-rewrite&groups;

by occasions;

run;

What the code does is it loops through 5 times and creates five datasets. Each new dataset creates a new array of variables. I used the %pre type variables to indicate what the prefix of the variable names are, and the %qs variables to indicate how many questions there were that used that prefix. So, the first time through, it manipulates cta_1-cta_23. After the loop is done, it merges all of the information together so that I have everything in a single dataset.

Thanks to Astounding's advice, I got the macro variables to resolve properly, and after that it was just a matter of figuring out how I could include array statements in a loop, since you can't utilize something like "array1" twice.

Thank you everyone!