topic an error message in proc sql within a mcaro: not sure why in SAS Procedures

an error message in proc sql within a mcaro: not sure why

fengyuwuzu — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 17:43:30 GMT

%macro both(ds1,ds2,ds3);
	proc sql;
		create &ds3. as 
			select one.ID, one.Gender, one.ZIP, one.State, one.age 
				from &ds1. as one, &ds2. as two
					where one.ID=two.ID;
%mend;
%put %both(data1,data2,test)

I want to select the observations with same ID from two files, and because I need to do this repeatedly (I have 7 data sets), so I wrote the above macro. Howeverm when I called it using the %put statement, I got an error:

ERROR 180-322: Statement is not valid or it is used out of proper order (create was underlined to indicate the error position).

Why do I get this error? Can anyone kindly give me some hint if you know about it? Thanks!

Re: an error message in proc sql within a mcaro: not sure why

Astounding — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 20:12:23 GMT

Almost always, it will be wrong to call a macro inside a %PUT statement. In this case, it is definitely wrong. Here is the beginning of your result:

%put proc sql;

create table ds3 as

If you coded this yourself, you would expect to get an error. The %PUT statement would write "proc sql" and then SAS would try to execute "create table ds3 as ...". Since there is no longer a PROC SQL statement as part of the SAS program, "create table ds3 as ..." gives you the error message.

Re: an error message in proc sql within a mcaro: not sure why

ballardw — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 20:56:37 GMT

I would try something like:

%macro both(ds1,ds2,ds3);
	proc sql;
		create &ds3. as 
			select one.ID, one.Gender, one.ZIP, one.State, one.age 
				from &ds1. as one, &ds2. as two
					where one.ID=two.ID;
        quit;
%mend;

%both(data1,data2,test);

If you want to see what the generated code looks like then use

options mprint;

before running the macro.