Find the no. of ampersands

[KeinYung]

Write a macro program to find out how many ampersands is needed for generating the specified result.

Given a series of macro variables:

%let a=b;

%let b=c;

%let c=d;

%let d=e;

Pls help. Thank you.

[PeterClemmensen]

What have you tried so far?

[gamotte]

Hello,

What do you need that for ?

If you need more that three ampersands to resolve a macrovariable there

is probably a design problem in your code.

%let TRUE=GE;
%let GE=AND;
%let AND=LE;
%let LE=TRUE;

%macro MinAmpersand(var);

    data _NULL_;
	    length value $4. amps $20.;
	    var="&var.";

		amps="&";

		do while (var ne value and MAX_LOOP<20);
		    MAX_LOOP+1;
		    value=resolve(cats(amps,"TRUE"));
			amps=cats(amps,"&");
		end;

		nbamps=length(amps)-1;

		put nbamps " ampersands necessary for macrovariable &var.";
	run;

%mend;

%MinAmpersand(TRUE);
%MinAmpersand(GE);
%MinAmpersand(AND);
%MinAmpersand(LE);

[SASKiwi]

I see a similar question has been asked here: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/Count-the-number-of-ampersands/m-p/518736#M73337

I can only assume it is some sort of homework assignment. Personally I don't see the value in these types of intellectual challenges.