Macro variable with multiple values

[vikram_e]

Hi There,

I am having  Macro var1 having multiple values seperated by delimitor (master list of charcter type variable), another macro var2 val seperated by dilimitor (another subgroup of Mixed type (Char+Num) ). i want to find out the common values between two macro variables. any one please help me. 

Macro Var1 = Name sex race occp     {all character type variables}

Macro Var2 = Name age sex salary race country {mixed type char and Num variables}

Solution Like  Macro Var3 = Name sex race   {only characters type vars

Thanks 

[error_prone]

EDIT: this post can be ignored ... should not post without sufficient caffeine consumed.

With the names alone it is impossible to tell whether a variable is numeric or alphanumeric. You need the names of dataset and library and query sashelp.vcoulmn or another metadata-source.

You can select variables depending on there type from sashelp.column.

Untested code:

proc sql;
   select *
     from sashelp.vcolumn
       where libname = 'SASHELP' and MemName = 'CLASS' and Type = 'char'
   ;
quit;

[Tom · Accepted solution]

So you have these macro variables.

%let charvars = Name sex race occp ;
%let allvars = Name age sex salary race country ;

And you want to produce.

%let found=Name sex race;

It would be easier to do it with a data step (if the values of the macro variables are not longer than 32K characters).

data _null_;
  charvars="&charvars";
  allvars="&allvars";
  length found $32767 ;
  do i=1 to countw(charvars,' ');
    if indexw(upcase(allvars),upcase(scan(charvars,i,' '))) then 
      found=catx(' ',found,scan(charvars,i,' '))
    ;
  end;
  call symputx('found',found);
run;

Although you could do it inside of a macro.  You could even define the macro to work like a function since it has no need to generate SAS code.

%macro findwords(allvars,charvars);
%local i next found ;
%do i=1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&charvars,%str( )));
  %let next=%scan(&charvars,&i,%str( ));
  %if %sysfunc(indexw(%upcase(&allvars),%upcase(&next),%str( ))) %then
    %let found=&found &next 
  ;
%end;
&found.
%mend findwords;

Then you could call it to create your list.

%let found=%findwords(&allvars,&charvars);
%put &=found ;

[Astounding]

Excellent advice.  Also note, you can get rid of the local macro variable FOUND.  Remove it from the %LOCAL statement, remove the final &FOUND. line, and make this change:

%if %sysfunc(indexw(%upcase(&allvars),%upcase(&next),%str( ))) %then &next;

[vikram_e]

Hi Tom

Thanks for your time to solve the issue, i appriciate your help.

[ShiroAmada]

Try this....

%let Var1 = Name sex race occp;
%let Var2 = Name age sex salary race country;

data 
   STRING1 (keep=string1  where=(string1 is not missing) )
   STRING2 (keep=string2  where=(string2  is not missing) );

  VAR1=upcase("&var1");
  Var1wc=countw(var1);

  var2=upcase("&var2");
  var2wc=countw(var2);

do i=1 to max(var1wc,var2wc);
  length string1 string2 $32;

  string1 =scan(var1,i," ");
  string2 =scan(var2,i," ");
  output;
end;

run;


proc sql noprint;
  select coalescec(string1 ,string2 ) into: var3 separated by " ";
from WANT A , WANT B
where string1= string2 ;
quit;

Hope this helps.

[vikram_e]

Hi ShiroAmanda,

Thank you for your time, Code was simple and easy to understand to every one. i appriciate your help.