topic Re: Add a check point to the entire procedure in SAS Procedures

Add a check point to the entire procedure

Crubal — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 15:36:11 GMT

Hi,

I have a question on setting a check point within the SAS code. This check point could decide if later procedures will run or stop.

The code has 10 input tables: Table1, Table2, ..., Table10.

Later procedures will run if Table1 through Table10 they all have observations (not empty). Later procedure will stop if any one of Table1 through Table10 is empty.

I know the following code could check whether the table is empty or not for 1 table:

        Proc Sql noprint;
			Select * from Table1;
	Quit;

	put *&sqlobs*;

	if &sqlobs > 0 
		then do; 
                        ...
        else do;
                end;

How could I apply similar procedure to 10 tables? Is there any simple way?

Thank you!

Re: Add a check point to the entire procedure

mkeintz — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 03:53:44 GMT

You can use the DICTIONARY feature of proc sql, specifically dictionary.tables. Lets say you want to examine all datasets whose name begins with 'X' in the work library:

proc sql noprint;
  select 
    case when min(nobs)>0 then 'CONTINUE' else 'STOP' end
  into :status
  from dictionary.tables 
  where libname='WORK' and memname like 'X%';
quit;
%put &=status;
%if &status=CONTINUE %then %do;
   ...
   ...
%end;

Re: Add a check point to the entire procedure

Crubal — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 20:17:08 GMT

Great, thank you! @mkeintz

Re: Add a check point to the entire procedure

ChrisNZ — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 05:05:01 GMT

With this method, you have to encase the whole program in a macro for %if statements to be accepted, and you end up with 10 nested tests (unless you use %goto).

That's a sad limitation of SAS's that one has to resort to such kludges.

See here.