find function is not working properly into a SAS macro function

[alepage]

Hello,

I need to test if &csvfile containt the name of a file or no suc file . Then if there is a csv file then import the data into a sas data set . Otherwise, put there is no csv file to import into a sas dataset.

%macro test;

%let csvfile=*.csv: No such file or directory;
%let csvfile=Master_list_20241031.csv;
%if %sysfunc(find(&csvfile,'No such file')) = 0 %then
%do;
	%put "there is a none empty csv file to import into a sas dataset";
%end;
%else 
%do;
	%put "There is no csv file to import into a SAS dataset";
%end;
%mend test;
%test;

If I select the first csvfile, I am expecting to get There is no csv file to import into a SAS dataset and if I use the second value I expect to get

there is a none empty csv file to import into a sas dataset

It is not working properly What's wrong

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

When you add quotes to values to search for in the MACRO language then if the searched string doesn't have the quotes you don't get a match.

Run this:

%let csvfile=*.csv: No such file or directory;

%put %sysfunc(find(&csvfile,'No such file'));

%put %sysfunc(find(&csvfile,No such file));

The 8 from the second %put shows that the text is found.

[ChrisNZ]

Every value in the macro language is a string.

So you should not use quotes for the variable values, unless of course the value contains quotes.