RED part in Variable Names

[thepushkarsingh]

Why does a part of variable name in DATA step come RED when we use a macro variable in the other part?

Example -

VAR_&macro_var. = VAR1/VAR2;

[koyelghosh]

May be an indication of an unrecognized statement.

[thepushkarsingh]

But the code works fine. The variable is created and there are no error or warning.

[koyelghosh]

You are not alone. There has been a discussion (https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/Red-color-for-unrecognized-statements-Help-improve-col...).

I guess, then, that this is the editor issue/settings. When actually the macro is resolved it runs fine.

Based on the discussion above, I guess that the editor/IDE is red flagging but not the compiler.

[Reeza]

Which IDE are you using? EG, Base or SAS Studio? It varies between them. Studio > EG > Base.
Base hasn't been updated in years, EG & Studio are still being updated, Studio is more up to date.

[thepushkarsingh]

I am using SAS EG.

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Because the editor is just using some text scanning rules someone created to highlight code. So according to its rules that word VAR should be displayed in red.

It is NOT actually pre-compiling the code to figure out how each character/word in the program is actually going to be used.  That will be done by SAS (not the editor) when the code is run.

The highlighting in the editor is just a attempt to assist you in understanding the code. The colors do not have any actual impact on whether or how the code works.

[thepushkarsingh]

Many thanks.