I am trying to calculate the number of numeric values in a macro parameter.
The code below works for character strings-
%let x = A B C;
%let n = %SYSFUNC(COUNTW(&x));
The code below does not work for numeric values-
%let x = 10 20 50;
%let n = %SYSFUNC(COUNT(&x));
I know COUNT does not work like this. Which function i can use to solve it?
For your example, you can still use COUNTW.
Do you have more complex situations, such as:
%let x = 20 abc 50 A1;
If so, what would you like the result to be?
%let x = 20 abc 50 A1;
It should return 2 since two values are numeric.
Counting numeric vs. character separately is much harder.
But COUNTW will work with a list of numeric values. There must be some other problem. You can always post the code that gives you a blank.
How about this :
%macro count_digit(t=);
%local temp count;
%let count=0;
%do i=1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&t));
%let temp=%scan(&t,&i);
%if %datatyp(&temp)=NUMERIC %then %do;
%let count=%eval(&count+1);
%end;
%end;
&count
%mend;
%let x = 20 abc 50 A1;
%let n = %count_digit(t=&x);
%put &n;
Great suggestion from @Ksharp (as always). The %DATATYP autocall macro would even recognize leading plus or minus signs, decimal points or scientific notation (...E-6) as valid parts of numeric values. If this more general type of numeric "words" could occur, however, the sets of delimiters used by both COUNTW and %SCAN should be restricted (e.g. reduced to blanks, as shown below), as otherwise plus and minus signs and decimal points would be regarded as delimiters:
countw(&t,%str( ))
%scan(&t,&i,%str( ))
Probably misunderstanding how COUNT works. Count counts the number of times a substring appears in a string.
Count("xyxzxb 123","x") would return 3 times that X appears in the string.
%let x= 1,2,3;
%let count=%sysfunc(n(x)); would give you count but the list would have to be comma separated which in general is a suboptimal choice with macro variables and fails miserably if any nonnumeric noncomma characters are encountered.
Don't miss out on SAS Innovate - Register now for the FREE Livestream!
Can't make it to Vegas? No problem! Watch our general sessions LIVE or on-demand starting April 17th. Hear from SAS execs, best-selling author Adam Grant, Hot Ones host Sean Evans, top tech journalist Kara Swisher, AI expert Cassie Kozyrkov, and the mind-blowing dance crew iLuminate! Plus, get access to over 20 breakout sessions.
Learn how use the CAT functions in SAS to join values from multiple variables into a single value.
Find more tutorials on the SAS Users YouTube channel.