Apparent invocation of macro ABC not resolved

[sam_sas2]

Hey guys,

I'm unable to understand the reason behind this error and how do I solve it?

Here is the code:

%let a= %str(abc|abc);

%let sep= %str();

%let b= %;

%let c= %sysfunc(CATX(&sep.,&b.,&a.,&b.));

%put &c.;

My goal is to take an input in variable 'a' (say abc|abc) and give an output such a way that it looks like '%abc|abc%'

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

%let a = %str(abc|abc);
%let c = %nrstr(%%)&a%nrstr(%%);
%put &=c;

Why %nrstr(%%)? The %NRSTR() function masks the meaning of the % sign, otherwise SAS thinks the % sign is invoking a macro. Why two %% inside the %NRSTR() function? Two percent signs are treated as one, as in the example in the documentation

There's never a need to use CATX (or CAT) to concatenate macro variables. Just stick them together as above.