topic Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED) in SAS Studio

Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

kc10 — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 02:44:18 GMT

Follow the instructions for your software to create a macro variable that stores the location for output files.

SAS Studio

In your EPG194 folder, open libname.sas.
Create a macro variable named outpath that stores the filepath to your EPG194/outputfolder:

%let outpath=filepath-to-output-folder;

Run the code.
Check the log to be sure there are no errors, then save and close the program

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 05:30:13 GMT

And what is the question?

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

kc10 — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 13:55:27 GMT

How do you create a macro variable named outpath that stores to your EPG194/outputfolder? I am having trouble.. don't know what to do from the beginning. Will appreciate your help to walk me through.

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 13:58:39 GMT

You already gave the answer yourself in your initial post. Just replace the italic string with the string that contains your path.

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

Astounding — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 14:44:14 GMT

Questions to get you started:

Do you know how to find your EPG194 folder?

Are you able to see files within that folder?

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

Cynthia_sas — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 14:59:13 GMT

Hi:

In SAS Studio, right click on the OUTPUT folder under your EPG194 main folder. Choose Properties. In the location field, the full path should be revealed to you. Highlight and copy this path with Ctrl+C. then highlight the italics (shown in pink below):

%let outpath=filepath-to-output-folder;

and replace (Ctrl+V) the highlighted string with the path location you copied from Properties. Possibilities for all the different ways to use SAS are:

Most frequently used free methods:

SAS University Edition: %let outpath=/folder/myfolders/EPG194/output;

SAS OnDemand for Academics: %let outpath=/home/<your_userid>/EPG194/output;

OR %let outpath=~/EPG194/output;

Other methods of using SAS:

C: drive with local SAS: %let outpath=C:\SAS_class\EPG194\output;

Unix Installation: %let outpath=/usr/bin/SAS_class/EPG194/output;

Enterprise Guide: %let outpath = %sysfunc(pathname(work)); (no write access to C: drive)

OR %let outpath = c:\SAS_class\EPG194\output; (with write access to C: drive)

Any time in the course where you have seen the string 'FILEPATH' or 'filepath-to-folder', you've needed to replace that string with a path location -- usually the path to the data folder. The only difference here is that you are using the locatioin of the OUTPUT folder.

Hope this helps,

Cynthia

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

kc10 — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 18:03:22 GMT

Thank you for your help CYNTHIA. Really appreciated!

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

kc10 — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 18:04:20 GMT

Yes... thank you all for your help.

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

kc10 — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 18:05:23 GMT

Thank you so much for your help.

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

thyes83 — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 19:38:55 GMT

I am struggling getting past this first step of defining a file path using the %let macro code. Specifically, after running the code (SAS Studio - University Edition), with the correct path, the code runs but I cannot see anything in the log to indicate the macro variable was created. When calling in the macro variable in the Proc Export activity - the program does not recognize the &outpath macro so no table is produced. I tried a few different ways of running the %let to define the &outpath macro variable and proc export program to produce the pg1.storm_final SAS table but cannot get past this exercise.

Quick question, after running the following exercise - the following code - what should I see in the log? How do I know the &outpath macro variable was successfully created and available to use in the proc export exercise?

%let outpath=/folders/myfolders/EPG1V2/output;

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

Kurt_Bremser — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 20:45:57 GMT

When you run this, and nothing else appears in the log, then you can safely assume it worked.

To check, run this:

%put &=outpath.;

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

thyes83 — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 21:09:56 GMT

Kurt -

Thank you for your help....I was able to successfully complete the exercise - and output the .csv file to the output folder.

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

Cynthia_sas — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 22:18:13 GMT

Hi:

If you have successfully changed your LIBNAME.SAS program, as shown below,these 2 activities are linked:

Once you update LIBNAME.SAS with the %LET statement and run the code, assuming that you have the correct location of your OUTPUT folder, the macro variable should resolve correctly. You can use the %PUT statement to verify the value of &OUTPATH, as shown below:

However, if you spelled the folder path wrong, the %PUT doesn't do you any good here. What really matters is whether the output file got exported correctly to the /folders/myfolders/EPG1V2/output folder when you run the code to create the storm_final.csv file. In my SAS log, it shows in the NOTES what the value of &outpath was, how it was used and whether the program code was successful. You can see the resolved name in the LOG messages below:

I hope this helps clarify that when we refer to using &OUTPATH, we expect that you have done the required setup for creating the macro variable. As shown in my code, for SAS University Edition, assuming you made the data according to the instructions, your data folder full path should be:

/folders/myfolders/EPG1V2/data

and the output folder full path should be:

/folders/myfolders/EPG1V2/output

Cynthia

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

smatholi — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 23:35:10 GMT

I tried hard but no success. please help. I am getting the below error

1 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;
72
NOTE: PROCEDURE EXPORT used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
user cpu time 0.00 seconds
system cpu time 0.00 seconds
memory 194.37k
OS Memory 33708.00k
Timestamp 16/02/2021 11:33:08 PM
Step Count 162 Switch Count 0
Page Faults 0
Page Reclaims 16
Page Swaps 0
Voluntary Context Switches 0
Involuntary Context Switches 0
Block Input Operations 0
Block Output Operations 0

NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
73 proc export data=pg1.storm_final
74 outfile= "&outpathone/test_file.csv"
NOTE: Line generated by the macro variable "OUTPATHONE".
74 ""/EPG194/output"
_
22
76
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: ;, DATA, DBLABEL, DBMS, DEBUG, FILE, LABEL, OUTFILE, OUTTABLE, REPLACE,
TABLE, _DEBUG_.

ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.

75 dbms=csv replace;
76 run;
77
78 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;
90

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

SASKiwi — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 00:51:51 GMT

It looks like you have wrapped the macro variable OUTPATHONE's value in unbalanced quotes. It shouldn't need quotes at all:

%let OUTPATHONE = /EPG194/output;

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

Cynthia_sas — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 18:52:01 GMT

HI:
When using SAS University Edition, a partial path is NOT recommended. So with this OUTFILE= option:
outfile= "&outpathone/test_file.csv"

The challenge is that if &OUTPATHONE is just /EPG194/output (or in the newer course /EPG1V2/output), then the resolved value would be:
outfile="/EPG194/output/test_file.csv"

And that would make SAS think that the EPG194 folder was in a relative location to a system folder. And in SAS University Edition and SAS OnDemand for Academics, this location would be WRONG.

In the instructions, we tell you to use the full path. please go to your EPG194 folder in the Server Files and Folders pane and expand the folder. Then find the output folder and right click on the folder name and choose Properties. My guess is that you will see one of these 2 locations in the Location field of the properties window:
/home/<userID>/EPG194/output (for SAS OnDemand)
or
/folders/myfolders/EPG194/output (for SAS University Edition)

So this means that the correct %LET statement (without quotes) would be:
%let outpathone=/home/<userID>/EPG194/output; (for SAS OnDemand)
or
%let outpathone=/folders/myfolders/EPG194/output; (for SAS University Edition)

This would then make the OUTFILE= option resolve to:

outfile="/home/<userID>/EPG194/output/test_file.csv" (for SAS OnDemand)

outfile="/folders/myfolders/EPG194/output/test_file.csv"

Which should work for you to create the CSV file once the OUTFILE= option has the correct, full, path for the output folder.

Hope this helps,
Cynthia

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

smatholi — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 17:54:04 GMT

Thank you very much. I executed the %let statement without quotes. That was the issue and now resolved. Thanks

But wonder why %let statement didnt throw an error when I executed with quotes.

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

smatholi — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 17:57:03 GMT

Thank you. yes I used quotes when I executed %let statement that was the issue. thanks a lot

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

SASKiwi — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 18:48:38 GMT

@smatholi - Please update your post as answered in that case.

Re: Create a Macro Variable (REQUIRED)

shre6455 — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 18:05:16 GMT

%let outpath = /home/u61XXXX/EPG1V2/output;
run;

(it will define the macro outpath )

outfile="&outpath/storm_final.csv"

dbms=csv replace;

run;

NOTE: 3093 records were written to the file '/home/u61XXXX/EPG1V2/output/storm_final.csv'

answer to your question is 3093