DOSUBL scope of returned macro variables

[Quentin]

Thanks @pchegoor 

That is very exciting news.  Maybe enough for me to renew my personal AWS subscription so I can play with this a bit in university edition (probably still a couple months away from having 9.4M4 at work).

The management of the DOSUBL side-sesssion environment / inheritance (not only macro variable scope, but system option scope, etc... ) must be very complex.  I'm glad they have fixed this macro variable collision.  Hope to be playing with it soon.

There's such amazing potential in DOSUBL, I'm glad they're putting in the development effort for fixes. 

[pchegoor]

@Quentin   On a slightly  different  Topic.  I wonder why you need AWS  for SAS University Edition.  You can  directly  download  it  on your Machine instead of   using it via  the cloud on  AWS  and save money  on the subscription.   Also  if  you  prefer  a Cloud based  version of  Free SAS  Software   then  you do have the SAS On Demand for Academics  . This one  has SAS/GRAPH included too plus  additional  SAS products.  The  Comparision  of  SAS On Demand for Academics and SAS  University Edition  is  given here

 Right now  SAS On Demand for Academics this is still at 9.4M3  but  i  am hoping  by the  end  of Jan 2017  or so  it  may be also be updated to 9.4M4 .  May  be @AmyP_sas   can  comment  on when  this  may  occur.

[fury88]

I'm having a problem which I think MAY be related to this bug but I'm not sure because I'm venturing into new SAS coding territory!

I'm using a combination of PROC STREAM, a macro template to spit out XML, and  inside the template calling a macro that has a logic to set a global variable which will get used after the dosubl call.

/** Something similar to this **/

proc stream outfile=REQUEST
begin%due_date_template(...)
;;;;
run;

.
.
.

/** sub section of the due_date_template macro **/
%do i=1 %to &numAlerts;
.
.
%let rc= %sysfunc(dosubl('due_date_macro(var1,var2,var3...)'));
.
.
.
/** inside the due_date_macro, there is logic to set a global variable called 
    due_date
**/
%put due_date = &due_date;
%end;

/**
  1st time through the due_date gets set properly
  the remaining times in the iteration the due_date remains the initial value set
  by the dosubl call even though a new due_date is being calculated.
**/

 Is this part of the bug in M3? I've tried everything to get that &due_date macro to update after the dosubl call but it always remains the first value set!

-Matt

[pchegoor]

@fury88

Yes  it looks like  it is due to the DOSUBL  bug  in 9.4M3 .

I ran  the below  code  both   on 9.4M3  and 9.4M4 :

%macro due_date_macro(flag);
 
%Put  &=flag;
 
%Let due_date=&flag;
 
%Put  INNER : &=due_date;
 
%mend  due_date_macro;
 
 
%Let  Due_Date=;
%Let Var1=20120304;
%Let Var2=20120805;
%Let Var3=20150709;
 
 
%Macro  Test;
 
%do i=1 %to &numAlerts;
 
%let rc= %sysfunc(dosubl('%due_date_macro(&&Var&i)'));
 
%put OUTER : &=due_date;
%put **************************;
%end;
 
%Mend  Test;
 
 
%Let NumAlerts=3;
%Test;
 

Result from SAS 9.4M3:

1 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK;

55

56 %macro due_date_macro(flag);

57

58 %Put &=flag;

59

60 %Let due_date=&flag;

61

62 %Put INNER : &=due_date;

63

64 %mend due_date_macro;

65

66

67 %Let Due_Date=;

68 %Let Var1=20120304;

69 %Let Var2=20120805;

70 %Let Var3=20150709;

71

72

73 %Macro Test;

74

75 %do i=1 %to &numAlerts;

76

77 %let rc= %sysfunc(dosubl('%due_date_macro(&&Var&i)'));

78

79 %put OUTER : &=due_date;

80 %put **************************;

81 %end;

82

83 %Mend Test;

84

85

86 %Let NumAlerts=3;

FLAG=20120304

INNER : DUE_DATE=20120304

87 %Test;

OUTER : DUE_DATE=

**************************

FLAG=20120805

INNER : DUE_DATE=20120805

OUTER : DUE_DATE=

**************************

FLAG=20150709

INNER : DUE_DATE=20150709

OUTER : DUE_DATE=

**************************

Result  from   SAS 9.4M4 :

62 %macro due_date_macro(flag);
63
64 %Put &=flag;
65
66 %Let due_date=&flag;
67
68 %Put INNER : &=due_date;
69
70 %mend due_date_macro;
71
72
73 %Let Due_Date=;
74 %Let Var1=20120304;
75 %Let Var2=20120805;
76 %Let Var3=20150709;
77
78
79 %Macro Test;
80
81 %do i=1 %to &numAlerts;
82
83 %let rc= %sysfunc(dosubl('%due_date_macro(&&Var&i)'));
84
85 %put OUTER : &=due_date;
86 %put **************************;
87 %end;
88
89 %Mend Test;
90
91
92 %Let NumAlerts=3;
FLAG=20120304
INNER : DUE_DATE=20120304
93 %Test;
OUTER : DUE_DATE=20120304
**************************
FLAG=20120805
INNER : DUE_DATE=20120805
OUTER : DUE_DATE=20120805
**************************
FLAG=20150709
INNER : DUE_DATE=20150709
OUTER : DUE_DATE=20150709
**************************