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rhapsody
Calcite | Level 5

I wanna open the Excel file "January_Alex..xlsx". I'm using the following code

 

 

%let name=Alex;

x '"C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx" ';

 

 

But the problem is that SAS doesn't understand that "&name" is a macrovariable. I get the error message "Windows cannot find 'C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again"

 

Any ideas how to fix it?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
Tom
Super User Tom
Super User

@rhapsody wrote:

I wanna open the Excel file "January_Alex..xlsx". I'm using the following code

 

 

%let name=Alex;

x '"C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx" ';

 

 

But the problem is that SAS doesn't understand that "&name" is a macrovariable. I get the error message "Windows cannot find 'C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again"

 

Any ideas how to fix it?


SAS will not resolve macro references inside of single quotes. Use double quotes.  If you want to include double quotes in the string passed to DOS/Windows then double the embedded quotes;

 

"""C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx"""

Or let the QUOTE() function do it for you.

%let cmd="C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx";
x %sysfunc(quote(&cmd));

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1
Tom
Super User Tom
Super User

@rhapsody wrote:

I wanna open the Excel file "January_Alex..xlsx". I'm using the following code

 

 

%let name=Alex;

x '"C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx" ';

 

 

But the problem is that SAS doesn't understand that "&name" is a macrovariable. I get the error message "Windows cannot find 'C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again"

 

Any ideas how to fix it?


SAS will not resolve macro references inside of single quotes. Use double quotes.  If you want to include double quotes in the string passed to DOS/Windows then double the embedded quotes;

 

"""C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx"""

Or let the QUOTE() function do it for you.

%let cmd="C:\Folder\January_&name..xlsx";
x %sysfunc(quote(&cmd));

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