Nested Macros - Macro Variable Resolution Help

[buechler66]

Thanks so much for your time.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Keep in mind that the macro language knows only two scopes: global and local.

If you define macro B within macro A, variable X that is present in A will be in the local table of A, but not in the local table of B. If you now call execute a macro with single quotes, the execution of the macro is postponed and the expected variable will not be present.

Defining a macro within another macro only means that the inner macro is compiled every time the outer macro executes, creating unnecessary overhead. Nesting macro calls is a different thing and can make sense, but most of the time complex macro calling is unnecessary and a violation of the KISS principle that makes code hard to understand and brittle.

[Astounding]

Based on some of your follow-up responses, here is an approach to consider.

proc sql;

select distinct(zip5) into : allzips separated by ' ' from sampledzips;

quit;

%macro loopthru;

%local i rule_order zip5;

%do i = 1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&allzips));

   %let zip5 = %scan(&allzips, &i);

   %do rule_order=1 %to 9;

      %put &zip5 &rule_order;

      %** Possibly do something else at this point as well;

   %end;

%end;

%mend loopthru;