A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is req

[arunr]

Hi,

I'm getting an error using following code. please help what am I missing ?

%let indir=//folder/path;

%PUT &indir;

%if %substr(&indir,%length(&indir),1)^=/ %then %let indir=&indir/;

ERROR: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is required. The condition was:
T^=/

[jimbarbour]

Something returned from your functions is coming back as character instead of numeric.  You might try doing a STRIP for the data you're trying to get the length of.

Jim

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

It appears that the bare / character may be treated as expecting division (numeric)

See if  forcing quotes does what you expect:

%if %quote(%substr(&indir,%length(&indir)))^= "/" %then %let indir=&indir/;

When the second parameter of Substr is the length of the variable you get the last character, so the ,1 isn't needed.

[Tom]

That cannot work.  You are comparing a one character string to a three character string.  They will never be equal.

Either add real quotes to both sides.

Or add macro quoting to both sides.

[KentL]

Beautiful.  %quote() comes to the rescue!  Thanks.

[Tom]

%EVAL() is looking for the numbers you want to divide.  Macro quoting helps.

904   %if /=/ %then %do;
ERROR: A character operand was found in the %EVAL function or %IF condition where a numeric operand is required. The condition was:
       /=/
ERROR: Skipping to next %END statement.
905     %put equal;
906   %end;
907   %if %str(/)=%str(/) %then %do;
908     %put equal;
equal
909   %end;

So add macro quoting on both sides of the operator.

%if %qsubstr(&indir,%length(&indir))^=%str(/) %then %let indir=&indir/;

[jimbarbour]

My first try was not the issue.  Try wrapping the left side of the equation in %BQUOTE.  

This seems to be working for me:

%let indir=//folder/path;
%PUT &indir;
%if %bquote(%substr(&indir,%length(&indir),1)) ^= %bquote(/) %then 
	%DO;
		%let indir=&indir/;
	%END;
%else
	%DO;
		%put	NOTE:  No action taken;
	%END;

Jim