Apparent invocation of macro not resolved.

[lionking19063]

Hi,

I got an error message when the following code were submitted. It says "Apparent invocation of macro not resolved.". Does anyone hvae any insight? Thank you.

proc sql;

create table a as

select distinct *

from test data

where lower(last_name) like "%&proj%";

quit;

[Reeza]

SAS is looking for a macro because you have %proj

its a warning not an error though? 

Can you use the find or index function instead if you need to avoid the warning? 

[RW9]

It is this code line:

where lower(last_name) like "%&proj%";

If you use macro constructs = % or & witihin double quotes, then then macro preprocessor is invoked.  Now it will resolve &proj. to its value, and then look for a macro called %<proj value>.  

Use SAS functions to search for a string - index() for instance.  Or avoid using macro paramters, is there any reason why &proj is used?

[lionking19063]

I used index as you mentioned, it works fine. Just wonder if there is a way to fix the error in the existing SAS codes instead of trying another way. Thanks.

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Probably the easiest is to build up the string with the % in it in a way that does not trigger the macro processor.

Here is one way.

%let name=fred;
proc sql noprint;
create table a as
 select distinct *
 from sashelp.class
 where lower(name) like '%'||"&name"||'%'
;
quit;

[lionking19063]

The answers works perfectly. Thank you so much for your help.