MACRO PARAMETERS

[Karen_sas11]

Good morning Everyone,

I have a quick question here, assume there is a macro parameter and the var is defined, when I call the macro and I assign a new value to the same var, what it would happen?

Let's take this for example:

%macro houses(dsn=houses, sub=RANCH);
data &dsn;
set sasuser.houses; if style="&sub";
run;
%mend;
%houses (sub=SPLIT);
%houses (dsn=ranch);
%houses (sub=TWOSTORY);

so what's the most recent data set did I create?

Thanks!

[novinosrin]

so what's the most recent data set did I create?

should be the result of  

%houses (sub=TWOSTORY);

i.e  

data houses;
set sasuser.houses; if style="TWOSTORY";
run;

[Reeza]

Any reason to not run it and check the log to see what the output is?

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@Karen_sas11 wrote:

Good morning Everyone,

I have a quick question here, assume there is a macro parameter and the var is defined, when I call the macro and I assign a new value to the same var, what it would happen?

Let's take this for example:

%macro houses(dsn=houses, sub=RANCH);
data &dsn;
set sasuser.houses; if style="&sub";
run;
%mend;
%houses (sub=SPLIT);
%houses (dsn=ranch);
%houses (sub=TWOSTORY);

so what's the most recent data set did I create?

Thanks!

---

[novinosrin]

Hi @Karen_sas11 is it some quiz or certification question? or you are seeking or trying to make the distinction between macro compilation and execution. I think it;s the latter

[Reeza]

SASUSER.HOUSES is used in the training courses and prep material.

[novinosrin]

Aah ok. I didn't know that. Thank you!

[Karen_sas11]

@Reeza@novinosrin

Yes I saw many similar questions in the prep paper, so can you tell me the mechanism about it?

In the macro parameter,,,var is local, once it is assigned a value(in the compile stage), even when you call (execute)the macro meanwhile assign a new value(to the same var), it won't work right? The value won't be replaced?

[Reeza]

I think of it this way, if you create a macro with parameters in the definition, those are default values. If you call the macro with different parameters, then it overrides the default values. 

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@Karen_sas11 wrote:

@Reeza@novinosrin

Yes I saw many similar questions in the prep paper, so can you tell me the mechanism about it?

In the macro parameter,,,var is local, once it is assigned a value(in the compile stage), even when you call (execute)the macro meanwhile assign a new value(to the same var), it won't work right? The value won't be replaced?

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