dataset with variable that is a list of strings

[tedway]

I have a variable that is a list of years in character format, and I want to save the value in a data set for future reference.

Here's what I tried:

%let prior_years = ("1988","1999","2000");
data test;
test = &prior_term;
run;

And I get this error.

30 ("202040","99999","89898")
_
388
200
ERROR 388-185: Expecting an arithmetic operator.

ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.

I could do this and it works, but I don't want to change the format for the prior_years variable:

%let prior_years = (1988,2000);
data test;
test = "&prior_years";
run;

[PhilC]

What's your previous experience with programming?  I am curious.

you can do this the "wide" way or the "narrow" way.

the wide:

data want_wide;
  year1 =1988;
  year2 =1999;
  year3 =2000;
run;

the narrow:

data want_narrow;
  year =1988; output;
  year =1999; output;
  year =2000; output;
run;

[ballardw]

A variable that has a list of items would typically look like:

data example;

   var = "1998, 1999, 2011";

run;

Quotes inside values are typically a very bad idea.

So, why do you have quotes and a delimiter in the value?.

And your example code creates one macro variable an then uses a different one.

%let prior_years = ("1988","1999","2000");
data test;
test = &prior_term;
run;

  it would make, slightly, more sense to do.

%let prior_years =1988,1999,2000;
data test;
test = "&prior_years";
run;

The question is why is a macro variable involved at all?

[tedway]

I'm using prior_years as the criteria in proc sql and this format has always worked:

prior_years = ("1988","1999","2000");

I'm just trying to store the current value of prior_years in a data set so that I have it for future reference. I also capture the current date and other stuff so that I can look back at it and see what values I used.

[Dani_Gor]

Are you expecting a result like this one?

[tedway]

Yes.

[Dani_Gor · Accepted solution]

I think this code may solve your problem:

%let prior_years = ("1988","1999","2000");
%let list=%tslit(&prior_years);
%put &=list;
data test;
test = &list;
run;

documentation at this link: https://go.documentation.sas.com/?cdcId=pgmsascdc&cdcVersion=9.4_3.5&docsetId=lebaseutilref&docsetTa...

[tedway]

That works great. Thank!