Best way to repeat the same steps over and over until a value is reached?

[MeganE]

Hi,

I have four-ish SAS steps that i want to repeat until no more records are deleted in the last step.

I was thinking do/until sounded right, but i have never used it before, so i wasn't sure.  So keep in mind, while i'm playing around with writing stuff, nothing is currently running.  This is pretty much abstract theory so far.

But i was thinking:

%macro

%do %until (var=0);

  blah - frequency

  blah - second separate data step

  blah - third separate data step

  blah - other data step

  blah - check dictionary tables for record counts

  var=[record counts]-[record counts]

%end;

%mend;

So in step 5, it was grabbing the nobs from the dictionary tables, so could tell whether any records were deleted in step 4, and have a tangible count of it.  If no records were deleted, stop processing, if records were deleted, process the cycle again.

But then i realized i needed an iterative counter to track the datasets through each cycle and then i realized i had to write in a split path at the top so that first time through it would take one dataset to start, but second+ it would take the end table from the previous time through, and now i'm wondering if this is even the best way to do it.

What do you guys think?

Thanks.

[Astounding]

Since the question is conceptual only at this point, here are some gut reactions.

First, since the possibility of an infinite loop exists, I would be very careful to make sure the program ends (regardless of the final coding techniques used).

Second, I would reuse the same data set name until SAS is sick of it.  For example, capture the number of records after step 3 into a macro variable &BEFORE, then capture the number of records after step 4 into &AFTER.  See if &BEFORE=&AFTER.  Then you don't need to count number of iterations, and you don't need to change the data set names each time.

[MeganE · Accepted solution]

I did end up getting this to work with a do/until and built in counter, but the code is too long to post here.  If someone wants to send me a message with a question, feel free.  But i don't know how to delete posts, so i'm going to use this one as the solution. 🙂