Libname statement not finding folder with macro variable

[Dougall]

I am trying to dynamically create a SAS library. A new folder is created every day, title is date and time I.e yyyymmddhhmmss.
An example title would be 20160114134615 (no letters in the folder name)
I pipe in the directory structure, get the folder name I need, and allocate to a macro variable called CheckFolder using an sql select into: statement.
I then try
Libname Sample "&samplePath\&CheckFolder";
I receive NOTE: Library SAMPLE does not exist.
If I were to use :
Libname Sample "&samplePath\20160114134615";
It creates the library no problem.

I have checked the &samplepath variable, there are no issues there.

Is there some general reason this statement fails?

PS: sorry for not posting code, no internet access on my computer so I had to post this from my phone.

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

Run the libname statement with the MPRINT and SYMBOLGEN options turned on. It will show what the log is trying to submit and where the error is.

It's possible you need a period (.) after the macro variable to force it to resolve properly.

Libname Sample "&samplePath.\&CheckFolder.";

[Astounding]

Your tests clearly narrow the problem down to the value of &CheckFolder.

One of the red flags is that &CheckFolder gets created by SQL into.  It's possible that SQL performs a numeric to character conversion when assigning the value.  That might introduce leading blanks, or possibly conversion to scientific notation.  Check what you are getting:

%put **&CheckFolder**;

[Tom]

SAS character variables are fixed length fields, so make sure to use the TRIMMED option on the INTO clause.

select charvar_or_function
  into :CheckFolder trimmed
  from ....

Or add a step to remove the trailing spaces.

%let CheckFolder=&CheckFolder;

[Dougall]

Symbolgen caught the issue, when I formatted the piped in data I was just dropping a single digit from the CheckFolder variable. Thank you all for the help!