Feeding individual char values into procedure

[H]

Well a pretty basic question for savvy data step folks. I have a finite set of character values in a variable and I want to run a procedure over and over cycling through the character list. So it will input the value into TITLE statement and WHERE statement. A generic version of my attempt is below. Ideally this code would run quantreg twice, once for variable = 'IM' and once for 'PD'

ods graphics on;
%let valuelist = 'IM' 'PD';
title "&valuelist Data";
proc quantreg data=res_costs ci=sparsity/iid algorithm=interior(tolerance=1.e-4);
	where program = &valuelist    
					;
	model charges =  /
	quantile = 0.25 to 0.75 by 0.25
	plot=quantplot;
run;
%put &valuelist;
ods graphics off;

[novinosrin]

a quick pointers here with which i am sure you can modify

ods graphics on;
%macro h;
%local valuelist;
%let valuelist = IM PD;
title "&valuelist Data";
%do i=1 to %sysfunc(countw(&valuelist));
%let var=%scan(&valuelist,&i);
proc quantreg data=res_costs ci=sparsity/iid algorithm=interior(tolerance=1.e-4);
	where program = "&var"
					;
	model charges =  /
	quantile = 0.25 to 0.75 by 0.25
	plot=quantplot;
run;
%end;
%mend h;
%h
ods graphics off;

[H]

First of all, thanks for the reply. The code doesn't quite work (run).  Probably my fault for not having an executable example. It first wanted a "%" on the 'to', then gave the following error message:

NOTE: No observations were selected from data set
      WORK.RES_COSTS.
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of
      errors.
NOTE: PROCEDURE QUANTREG used (Total process time):
      real time           0.00 seconds
      cpu time            0.00 seconds





NOTE: No observations were selected from data set
      WORK.RES_COSTS.
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of
      errors.
NOTE: PROCEDURE QUANTREG used (Total process time):
      real time           0.00 seconds
      cpu time            0.03 seconds

While staring at it I cannot think how to resolve the undefined issue. Perhaps, we can use the Sashelp.Heart set to get on common ground. An equivalent would be:

ods graphics on;
proc quantreg data=sashelp.heart ci=sparsity/iid algorithm=interior(tolerance=1.e-4);
	where Sex = "Female"
			/*		"Male"	*/
						;
	model weight =  /
	quantile = 0.25 to 0.75 by 0.25
	plot=quantplot;
run;
ods graphics off;

[novinosrin]

to to %to was a syntax error on my part. Sorry about that

Can you follow the logic with  options mlogic symbolgen mprint;  before the macro beginning that explains the processing of the program in the log

[ballardw]

Your basic problem is attempting to use WHERE= with multiple values.

As you have found a statement like

Where program = 'A' 'B' ;

is a syntax error. The appropriate would be

Where program in ('A' 'B');

If you always have more than one value in your value list you could use:

Where program in (&valuelist);

But if you are going to mix single and double then you need to implement some logic to use either "Where =" or "where in".

Perhaps something like:

%macro wherelist (parm);
   %if %sysfunc(countw(&parm.)) > 1 %then %do;
      where program in (&parm.);
   %end;
   %else %do;
      where program = &parm.;
   %end;
%mend;
%let valuelist = 'IM' 'PD';

title "&valuelist Data";
proc quantreg data=res_costs ci=sparsity/iid algorithm=interior(tolerance=1.e-4);
	%wherelist ( &valuelist.);
					;
	model charges =  /
	quantile = 0.25 to 0.75 by 0.25
	plot=quantplot;
run;

Note that there are potential issues with your "valuelist" being blank or having mismatched quotes that will yield unexpected results.

[mkeintz]

@ballardw

You suggest a need to change from

    where program in (&parm)

to

   where program = &parm

when &parm has a single value instead of a list of values.

Is that for a performance-based reason?

[H · Accepted solution]

@novinosrin - Thx

The following code worked for me, I have no idea what the option part did, but activated something 🙂

options mlogic symbolgen mprint;
ods graphics on;
%macro h;
%local valuelist;
%let valuelist = IM PD;
%do i=1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&valuelist));
%let var=%scan(&valuelist,&i);
proc quantreg data=res_costs ci=sparsity/iid algorithm=interior(tolerance=1.e-4);
	where program = "&var"
					;
	model charges =  /
	quantile = 0.25 to 0.75 by 0.25
	plot=quantplot;
run;
title "&var";
%end;
%mend h;
%h
ods graphics off;

@ballardw - Thx. I was unable to get your suggestion to run. I added the ODS GRAPHICS ON for the full output I was looking for, but it only seemed to run the procedure for IM and not PD. Which theoretically your approach may have been more ideal for me since I would only need to insert the prefix part of code if I wanted to run comparable code later on in my program.

[novinosrin]

@H I am glad that %macro h: worked. I will have a pint for you. Have fun and enjoy your day

[ballardw]

---

@H wrote:

@novinosrin - Thx

@ballardw - Thx. I was unable to get your suggestion to run. I added the ODS GRAPHICS ON for the full output I was looking for, but it only seemed to run the procedure for IM and not PD. Which theoretically your approach may have been more ideal for me since I would only need to insert the prefix part of code if I wanted to run comparable code later on in my program.

---

From the accepted solution it was because your problem definition was not clear. You did not indicate you wanted, at least to me, that you wanted a single run for each value in the list. I though you wanted to run on records where any of the listed values of Program were present.