Get column value from column name as string

[Haikuo]

, are you sure it worked? It seems to me it can't.

array all(&&nmobs.) $;

The time point when this macro variable is supposed to be resolved, it does not exist yet. It only exists after SAS code " call symputx('nmobs',numobs*4);" being executed,  which is way late for its call for being resolved. 

You may try to clean up your existing macro variables and give another shot.

Haikuo

[art297]

and : You're both obviously correct! Whatever I had done worked before I posted the message, but I can't replicate it. The code fails miserably. Darn!

I must have somehow created the macro variable while I was testing various iterations of the code.

[Tom]

You probably will need to add an INPUT() function to convert the character string returned by VVALUEX() function back to a number.

Also there is risk of rounding of the value caused by the number/character/number conversion.

value=input(vvaluex(channel),32.);

[SAS_inquisitive]

@Reeza, can you help me get this?  According to SAS documentation, vvaluex takes expression as argument. But here you have variable 'channel' as argument. I think vvalue only takes variable as argument. Thanks !

[Reeza]

---

@SAS_inquisitive wrote:

@Reeza, can you help me get this?  According to SAS documentation, vvaluex takes expression as argument. But here you have variable 'channel' as argument. I think vvalue only takes variable as argument. Thanks !

---

So how am I supposed to know what you're referring to in a 2 year old thread? You asked this earlier, please continue to post on that thread or start a new one. Answer to your question - what's an expression vs what's a variable. 

[SAS_inquisitive]

@Reeza  Thank you. I checked  the documentation  the expression specifies a character constant, variable, or expression that evaluates to a variable name.

[Edoedoedo]

Thank you guys,

it is amazing how many alternatives there exists to this problem

I think Reeza's solution is the most elegant, but thank you all for your ideas, I learned a lot.

Greetings