How to edit text before running it as code

[deleted_user]

Hi,

I have a list of over 2,000 variables.

To run a query on them I need to use the following code:

where variable in ('xxx1', 'xxx2', 'xxx3',....etc)

The variables are currently in the format of: xxx1 xxx2 xxx3

Is there a short cut to format the variables so i do not have to manually add ' ' , (the neccessary punctuation) to each of the variables?

Any help most appreciated!

[sbb]

From the SAS support website and its incredible resource of code snippets and examples -- which I found using a GOOGLE.COM advanced search with site:sas.com to limit the search:

Sample 25976: Create a macro variable that contains a quoted list
http://support.sas.com/kb/25/976.html


Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

[deleted_user]

Thanks so much for that Scott!

That code was very helpful.

Is it possible to keep the newly punctuated variables just as a data set?

i.e. I do not need the following:

data master;
input empl $ job $;
datalines;
12345 clerk
34567 rep
00001 analyst
;

proc print data=master;
where empl in(&list);
run;

[sbb]

Use PROC SQL to generate the macro variable, as demonstrated. Then code a DATA step with a RETAIN statement, specifying your desired SAS data variable name, and initialize the variable with the "generated" SAS macro variable, specified in double-quotes (not single-quotes -- otherwise the macro var is not going to be resolved).

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

[deleted_user]

I ended up concatenating the data in excel because it was the code I needed to format & not the output.

Thanks for your help.