Resolving macro variable inside ODS PDF text

[kimdukes77]

I am attempting to resolve a formatted macro variable inside ODS PDF text but am getting the error message below:-

  ERROR: More positional parameters found than defined.

If I remove the formatting from the 'total' it prints as expected, but it has to be comma formatted.

Code is below.  Can anyone help?

proc sql noprint;
select count(zip) format=comma10. into :total

from sashelp.zipcode;
quit; %put &total;

ods pdf file = 'c:\test.pdf';

ods pdf text = "This is the total: %left(&total)";

ods pdf close;

[Astounding · Accepted solution]

You're getting that error because the %LEFT function sees something like this:

%left(   123,456)

The comma appears to %LEFT as marking the end of the first parameter and the start of the second parameter.

The simplest solution would be to get rid of %LEFT.  First, remove leading blanks from &TOTAL using:

%let total = &total;

Then you can simplify the later statement:

ods pdf text = "This is the total: &total";

Good luck.

[kimdukes77]

Worked brilliantly, thanks for your help!