Macro variables and random blanks

[SteveS]

One of my colleagues has been running some code and intermittently the macro variables when being created using %let or called with %put have random blanks meaning they do not resolve properly. Does anyone know why this might be?

This is being submitted remotely from PC SAS 9.2 to Linux box

Code

rsubmit;

/* ASSIGN START AND END DATES TO EXAMINE */;

%let st_dt=%sysfunc(intnx(Month,&rep_dt,-3,B),date9.);

%let en_dt=&rep_dt;

%put &st_dt, &en_dt;

Endrsubmit

The log returned

775  /* ASSIGN START AND END DATES TO EXAMINE */;

776  %let st_dt=%sysfunc(intnx(Month,&rep_dt,-3,B),date9.);

777  %let en_dt=&rep_dt;

778  %put& st_dt,& en_dt;

& st_dt,& en_dt

NOTE: Remote submit to SASUNIX complete.

[ballardw · Accepted solution]

When I see something like that usually I ask if the code was copied from somewhere, like a website. There are apparently interactions with copy and paste from different sites that will insert invisible characters. Depending on the type of code they generate syntax errors or just goofy results.

Go to the source code file and see if you can delete a character after thein the %PUT statement & but the letter S or E remain.

Generally the solution is to type from scratch over the affected areas.

[SteveS]

Thank you ballardw, discovered this was the cause but in a proceeding piece of code which had thrown out everything later on.