Is there a way to concatenate quoted variables?

[shikoulitz]

Hi,

Is there a way to concatenate quoted variables?

Basically, I am trying to remove from sas programs all hard coded parms. I am working on z/OS
and trying to feed the parms from a file. For simplicity I am showing the parms on JCL inline below.

I am trying to replace lines like

    If cust not in (‘1’,‘3’,‘5’,‘8’,‘P’,‘Q’) then…

   …and feed them thru a file.

But I am stuck trying to concatenate the quoted variables.

  I tried feeding the parms quoted as well, and using the CAT flavors, and still not able to concatenate them.

  Is there a way to do it?

Here is the code I am currently trying. I am presenting only relevant lines.

Thank you.

Miguel

   //*  SAS PROGRAM                                       

  //SYSIN     DD DSN=CTOT.MSD.SASLIB(VMINACTH),DISP=SHR  

  //*  INPUT FILES                                       

  //CTOINFO   DD *                                       

  1 001 HbsTVM          092 123                          

  1 002 1358PQ                                           

  1 003 TOPL                                             

  … … …

  1 999 @                                                

   .. .. ..

  OPTIONS ERRORS=1 ERRORABEND SOURCE2 FULLSTATS SYMBOLGEN MEMRPT   

     SORTPGM=HOST BLKSIZE(DISK)=HALF DYNALLOC SORTWKDD=SASS;         

  /*--------------------------------------------------------------*/

  /* GET INFO FROM JCL REGARDING THE EXTENT OF THIS PROCESS       */

  /*--------------------------------------------------------------*/

  DATA INFOP;                                                       

  INFILE CTOINFO;                                                  

    INPUT   @001 recnum      1.                                      

           @003 rectype     3.@;                                    

    SELECT (RECTYPE);                                               

      WHEN (2) DO;                                                   

          retain ctyp;                                              

           INPUT @007 ctyp     :  $9.;                              

                end;                                                

      WHEN (3) DO;                                                   

          retain sttyp;                                              

           INPUT @007 sttyp    :  $8.;                              

                end;                                                

                … … …

   /*--------------------------------------------------------------*/

  /* FOLLOWING SECTION READ CUSTOMER ID CONTFORM                  */

  /*--------------------------------------------------------------*/

  85          DATA CTOPP;         

  86           RETAIN  CLTYPE STTYPE CLPREF;           

  87           format clt $4. clttype $35.  cpr $5.;                      

  88           INFILE LIPPIN PAD OBS=1000;                             

  104             cltype  = "";                                           

  105             sttype  = "";                                           

  106             clpref  = "";                                           

  107             put 'cl type b ' ctyp ' status ' sttyp;   

  108             * ------------ for cust type key --------------;      

  109                                                                    

  110             lt =  length(trim(ctyp));                               

  111             do i=1 to lt;                                           

  112                clt =  "'"||trim(substr(ctyp,i,1))||"',";            

  113                put 'cl type ' clt;                                  

  114                if i = lt then                                       

  115                   cltype = trim(cltype||"'"||clt||"'");             

  116                 else                                               

  117                   cltype = trim(cltype||"'"||clt||"',");            

  118                put 'cl typed ' cltype;                              

  119                end;                                                

... ... ...

   cl type b 1358PQ  status TOPL

  cl type '1',                                          

  cl typed                                              

  cl type '3',                                          

  cl typed                                              

  cl type '5',                                          

  cl typed                                              

  cl type '8',                                          

  cl typed                                              

  cl type 'P',                                          

  cl typed                                              

  cl type 'Q',                                          

  cl typed   

[Reeza]

I don't know enough about what you're doing so this may be a totally incorrect suggestion especially since I see you're using JCL.

I'd read the parameters into a temp data set and create a macro variable using proc sql.

proc sql noprint;

    select quote(trim(name)) into :name_list separated by ", "

    from sashelp.class;

quit;

%put &name_list;

[Amir · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Are you looking for some code like the following?

data _null_;

  length invalues $30;

  input @1 text $char8.;

  invalues=quote(substr(text,1,1));

  do until(lengthn(text)=1);

    text=substr(text,2);

    invalues=catx(',',invalues,quote(substr(text,1,1)));

  end;

  call symput(cats('invalues',_n_),invalues);

  *put _n_= invalues=;

  datalines;

HbsTVM

1358PQ

TOPL 

;

%put invlaues1=&invalues1;

%put invlaues2=&invalues2;

%put invlaues3=&invalues3;

giving:

invlaues1="H","b","s","T","V","M"

invlaues2="1","3","5","8","P","Q"

invlaues3="T","O","P","L"

Regards,

Amir.

Message was edited by: Amir - formatting

[jwillis]

Dear shkoulitz;

I'm a former jcl jockey.  I'm confused by your question which means I probably do not fully understand your question. The single quotes are not being delivered by your JCL. The quotes are being concatenated in by your SAS code in your build of CLT.  If you want to remove the single quotes you can use many tools.  If you code CLTc = compress(clt,"'") (untested), CLTc should return a value with  1,3,5, 8, P, Q. 

111             do i=1 to lt;                                             

  112                clt =  "'"||trim(substr(ctyp,i,1))||"',";            

  113                put 'cl type ' clt;                                  

  114                if i = lt then                                       

  115                   cltype = trim(cltype||"'"||clt||"'");             

  116                 else                                               

  117                   cltype = trim(cltype||"'"||clt||"',");            

  118                put 'cl typed ' cltype;                              

  119                end;                                       

[Peter_C]

Use the quote()  function to apply quotes and the dequote() to remove them.

When you need single quotes instead of doubles use the translate function.

Avoid quoting troubles by NOT concatenating quotes onto strings

hope your luck improves

peterC

[shikoulitz]

jwills, Peter.

I guess I was not clear or  my question.

I am trying to feed all hard codes thru a file so I can use the programs for multiple use.

To summarize instead of this  instruction

If cust not in (‘1’,‘3’,‘5’,‘8’,‘P’,‘Q’) then…

what I would like to do is something like this

if cust not in cltype .....   * where cltype = ('1','3','5','8','P','Q') ;

that is ... feeding the parms thru a file and concatenating them in a variable...

Maybe Peter is right and I should avoid concaternating quotes into strings, and change the code to a select or if anidated.

but will like to give it a try with Amir's and Reeza's suggestion.

Thanks guys

Miguel

[Peter_C]

There are 2 issues

1 loading parameters (your design so make it easy)

2 applying the parameters

As Reeza suggests, use that value list like

Where cust not in(&name_list)

But it assumes you have a table of those values.

What is the most practical way to load that list of cust values?

e.g.

data cust_exclusions;

Input xcust $ @@ ;

Cards;

1 3 5 8 P Q

;

proc sql noprint;

select xcust format=$quote. Into :cust_x_list separated by ', '

from cust_exclusions

;

use it as you need in code like

if cust not in( &cust_x_list )

The $quote. format does all the quoting you need and the "separated by" should provide the commas - all that without a concatenation in sight.

then you just have to simplify the loading of the parameter values

peterC

P.S.

sorry I forgot to mention earlier that the $quote fornat can be so helpful in loading quoted values into macro variables

Message was edited by: Peter Crawford   seemed a  good idea so   fixing untested code (now tested and it does what you need)

[shikoulitz]

thanks guys for your suggestions....

I like Reeza's simple SQL suggestion but not able to proceed with it. I guess I didn't understand what to include instead of

"from SASHELP.class" never used it in mainframe before. As explained below trying to execute SQL statement only for the first Data Step iteration.  here is what I my code

IF _N_ = 1 THEN DO;                         

   SET INFOP;                               

   TDATE = TODAY();                         

   proc sql noprint;                        

     select quote(trim(substr(ctyp,1,1)))   

            into :cltye separated by ", "   

      from sashelp.class;                   

   %put &cltye;                             

     END;                                  

and here is what I got:. Apparently doesn't like it the sql? what I did wrong?

101          IF _N_ = 1 THEN DO;                         

102             SET INFOP;                               

103             TDATE = TODAY();                         

104             proc sql noprint;                        

               _                                         

               117                                       

ERROR 117-185: There was 1 unclosed DO block.            

ERROR: SAS ended due to errors.                         

I even tried inserting the sql in a separate block and this is what I got...

01          IF _N_ = 1 THEN DO;                                                   

02             SET INFOP;                                                         

03             TDATE = TODAY();                                                   

04           END;                                                                 

05          IF _N_ = 1 THEN                                                       

06             proc sql noprint;                                                  

               ____                                                               

               180                                                                

07               select quote(trim(substr(ctyp,1,1)))                             

                        _____                                                     

                        22                                                        

RROR 180-322: Statement is not valid or it is used out of proper order.           

RROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: (, ;.                  

08                      into :cltye separated by ", "                             

                        ____                                                      

                        22                                                        

                        76                                                        

RROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: !, !!, &, ), *, **, +, -

             IN, LE, LT, MAX, MIN, NE, NG, NL, NOT, NOTIN, OR, ¬, ¬=, |, ||, ~, ~=.

RROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.                             

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then I also tried Amir's elegant solution... and I am stuck with the apparent symbolic reference x not resolved.

106             invalues=quote(substr(ctyp,1,1));                              

107             do until(lengthn(ctyp)=1);                                     

108                ctyp=substr(ctyp,2);                                        

109                invalues=catx(',',invalues,quote(substr(ctyp,1,1)));        

110                put 'ctyp ' ctyp ' invalues ' invalues;                     

111              call symput('cltype',invalues);                               

112                %put &cltype;                                               

WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference CLTYPE not resolved.                      

&cltype                                                                        

113                end;                                                       

I should come back with Peter's suggestion

So, what should I do?

Thanks guys,

Miguel

[Amir]

Hi,

My understanding was that the CTOINFO data from the JCL was to be used as the in-values.

The data step I coded sets up the macro variables &invalues1/2/3/etc. for use in later data steps (not the same one), e.g:

if var in (&invalues1) then

The reason you're getting the message is because &cltype can only be used after the data step in which it is created, not inside it. Just move your %put &cltype after the data step.

Regards,

Amir.

[shikoulitz]

Peter,

thanks for your suggestion, and basically I am trying to do the same. Here is a summary of my program

All parms being feed from a separate file containing several records. So the first one I do is convert to only one record.

That is long to wide conversion. This long observation contains all parms I will be using in my next data step. That is the reason for the SET INFOP in program

here is the code gracefully suggested by Reeza

if _n_ = 1 then do;

    set infop;

    tdate= today();

    proc sql noprint

      select quote(trim(substr(ctyp,1,1)))

                into :cltype separated by ", "

            from  infop;              * here are the parms I need ;

and what I get is rejecting the PROC sql statement as mentioned before

and even getting a message for a unclosed do block

[Reeza]

proc sql is a PROC and needs to be its own step, not embedded in a data step, which it looks like you're trying to do.

[shikoulitz]

you are right Reeza, that's what I was trying to do.

thanks for pointing it out for me.

let me do it prior to the data step where I need it. I hope it creates only one observation so I can use it

Thanks

[Reeza]

It creates a macro variable and you use that macro variable in the data step.

[shikoulitz]

Reeza,

not sure what is wrong now

from my original post I got  ctyp = 1358pq, and those are the ones I need in quotes and in a variable called CLTYPE.

what I get out of the sql is this

81              proc sql noprint;                         

82                select quote(trim(substr(ctyp,1,1)))    

83                       into :cltype separated by ", "   

84                 from infop;                            

85              %put &cltype;                             

SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable CLTYPE resolves to "1"         

"1"                                                      

Then I changed and tried as you suggested and this is what I got

81              proc sql noprint;                      

82                select quote(trim(ctyp))             

83                       into :cltype separated by ", "

84                 from infop;                         

85              %put &cltype;                          

SYMBOLGEN:  Macro variable CLTYPE resolves to "1358PQ" 

"1358PQ"                                               

86                                                    

What I did wrong?

Thanks

[Reeza]

Your data set only has one observation. Proc print infop to see all the values in that data set.

If it has more it would resolve properly. You need to post more code to diagnose the issue.