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csetzkorn
Lapis Lazuli | Level 10

I am getting a:

 

Expected close parenthesis after macro function invocation not found

 

fro this code:

 

data _null_;
  set LoopData;
  call execute('%nrstr(%SomeMacro('||ColumnName||'))');
run;

Cannot see anything wrong. Any ideas?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
Quentin
Super User

Agree, that bit looks fine.  Maybe there's a problematic macro call inside of %SomeMacro, or maybe your ColumnName variable has an unmatched open parenthesis in it. 

 

I tested your code with below, and worked fine:

 

%macro somemacro(columnName);
  proc print data=sashelp.class;
    var &columnName;
  run;
%mend somemacro;

data loopdata;
  input columnName $8.;
  cards;
sex
weight
height
;
run;

data _null_;
  set LoopData;
  call execute('%nrstr(%SomeMacro('||ColumnName||'))');
run;

 

I would try calling %SomeMacros manually (i.e., without CALL EXECUTE), and make sure it works.  Then I would look at all the values in ColumnName to check for any surprises.

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
Quentin
Super User

Agree, that bit looks fine.  Maybe there's a problematic macro call inside of %SomeMacro, or maybe your ColumnName variable has an unmatched open parenthesis in it. 

 

I tested your code with below, and worked fine:

 

%macro somemacro(columnName);
  proc print data=sashelp.class;
    var &columnName;
  run;
%mend somemacro;

data loopdata;
  input columnName $8.;
  cards;
sex
weight
height
;
run;

data _null_;
  set LoopData;
  call execute('%nrstr(%SomeMacro('||ColumnName||'))');
run;

 

I would try calling %SomeMacros manually (i.e., without CALL EXECUTE), and make sure it works.  Then I would look at all the values in ColumnName to check for any surprises.

csetzkorn
Lapis Lazuli | Level 10
Thanks I removed brackets from ColumnName because I thought exactly this. Turned out to be some legacy being commented out which screwed the code.
Tom
Super User Tom
Super User

Personally when using CALL EXECUTE() to generate macro calls I wrap the %NRSTR() macro function just around the macro name itself and leave the macro parameters without macro quoting.

 

data _null_;
  set LoopData;
  call execute(cats('%nrstr(%SomeMacro)(',ColumnName,')'));
run;

Are you sure that the value of ColumnName does not contain '()' characters?

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