Prompt manager does not have "Enclose value within Quotes" Option in Enterr

[Pramod_R]

Hi!

I was wondering if there is an option called as "Enclose value in quotes" in the SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3. I see it in the 4.1 when I chose the Parameters (Macro Parameters) Manager and chose the Data Type and values.

However, when I try navigating into the prompt manager, i do not get to see such a check box...

Is there something that i'm missing?

Thanks in Advance!
Pramod

[TomKari]

I don't have EG 4.3 in front of me, but I believe it's in the filter tab of the query builder, not the prompt manager.

[Pramod_R]

TomKari,

Thanks for your quick response. I do know that there is an option in the query builder. However, i was referring to the "enclose values within quotes" that was initially available in SAS EG 4.1 under Parameter Manager -> Add -> Data Type and Values tab, which is not present in the Enterprise Guide 4.3..

Does this mean that we would need to explicitly add the double quotes around our macro variables in the program while running the programs using the prompts?

Thanks again for your response..

[TomKari]

I took a more detailed look at 4.3 yesterday, and I believe that you are correct; when EG switched to the more sophisticated prompt handling, it looks like they removed the option to insert quotes.

Do you believe that this will cause a problem, or will you be able to circumvent it simply by putting your macro variable references in quotes yourself?

[Pramod_R]

Hi,

It should not be a huge problem putting quotes around the macro variables.

Just that I was trying to migrate all my projects/programs from SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 to 4.3. So this might involve quite a bit of modifications in my codes.

Thanks for your help anyway!

[Dmitry]

Actually, it does create a minor problem, well, more of an annoyance than a problem.

I've created prompt in EG 4.3 which asks user for password to connect to an Oracle database. If that password contains % (e.g. A%BCDE), then EG produces warning when the program is starting and macro variables are being assigned:

%LET pass_PASSWORD = XXXXX;

options nosource;

WARNING: Apparent invocation of macro BCDE not resolved.

Similar warning will happen if password contains &.

It doesn't affect the program itself  (you can always quote this variable after prompting), but still warnings are annoying.

There's a way to avoid them, typing into the prompt %nrstr(password) instead of password, but it's not humane for the user, is it?

So, to have back the quoting option for prompts (and not %str() as in EG 4.1, but %nrstr(), because it's just % and & who causes "problems", not other special symbols) would be a good idea.