Executing a .sas program conditionally as part of a IF/THEN/DO/ELSE/DO loop

[ijmoorejr]

The logic in the attached code block is working with the exception of the X command. Ideally, the X command to execute another SAS program should only run if varfroma=varfromb, but it keeps running even when varfroma ne varfromb. The put statements work properly, but the X command keeps running regardless of whether or not varfroma and varfromb are equal and seems to ignore the if/then/do logic. Can anyone suggest a way to fix this issue? Thanks.

libname datalib '/users/data/lives/here';
data datalib.c;
merge datalib.a datalib.b;
if varfroma=varfromb then do;
put 'BOTH VARIABLES ARE EQUAL';
x 'sas /users/prog/lives/here/runme.sas';
end;
else do;
put 'VARIABLES ARE UNEQUAL';
end;
run;

[andreas_lds · Accepted solution]

Afaik the x command can't be executed conditionally. And it is a bit strange to call a sas program in a sas program using os-commands. What are you trying to do? You could, of course, replace the x command with call system.

[ijmoorejr]

Thank you, andreas_lds. Using call system worked.

[SASKiwi]

There are a few ways of doing this. Here is one:

libname datalib '/users/data/lives/here';

%let run_pgm =;

data datalib.c;
merge datalib.a datalib.b;
if varfroma=varfromb then do;
put 'BOTH VARIABLES ARE EQUAL';
call symput('run_pgm', '%include "sas /users/prog/lives/here/runme.sas";');
end;
else do;
put 'VARIABLES ARE UNEQUAL';
end;
run;

&run_pgm

[Kurt_Bremser]

First of all, X is not a data step statement, but a global statement. Which means it takes effect immediately when it is encountered in the program text, not when that program text is executed after compilation.

Your code is equivalent to

x 'sas /users/prog/lives/here/runme.sas';
data datalib.c;
merge datalib.a datalib.b;
if varfroma=varfromb then do;
put 'BOTH VARIABLES ARE EQUAL';
end;
else do;
put 'VARIABLES ARE UNEQUAL';
end;
run;

Also mind: if you use call system here (which is a data step call routine), you would execute the external program for EVERY mismatch, which is probably not what you want.