SYMPUTX in SQL—How to Delete the Trailing Blanks

[Quentin]

Hi Paul (et al.)

I think perhaps you're being a little bit too harsh on the macro documentation.

https://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=mcrolref&docsetTarget=n1y2jszlvs4hugn14nooftfrxhp3.htm&docse...

With a close reading, it defines three different "forms" of macro variable specification

:macro-variable

:macro-variable-1 − : macro-variable-n <NOTRIM>

:macro-variable SEPARATED BY 'characters ' <NOTRIM>

Only the second and third form say that leading and trailing blanks are automatically trimmed (yes should be "stripped").  So that part is accurate.  Definitely it should be updated to describe the <TRIMMED> option which is available for the first form.

data have ;
  x="  foo  " ;
run ;

proc sql ;
  select x into :mvar1 from have ;
  select x into :mvar2 trimmed from have ;
  select x into :mvar3- from have ;
  select x into :mvar4- notrim from have ;                   
  select x into :mvar5 separated by " " from have ;
  select x into :mvar6 separated by " " notrim from have ;
quit ;

%put >>&mvar1<< >>&mvar2<< >>&mvar3<< >>&mvar4<< >>&mvar5<< >>&mvar6<< ;

Returns:

>>  foo  << >>foo<< >>foo<< >>  foo  << >>foo<< >>  foo  <<

Which is consistent with the docs.

In the second form, since the upper bound is optional, I suppose it should be:

:macro-variable-1 −  <: macro-variable-n> <NOTRIM>

Kind Regards,

--Q.

[hashman]

@Quentin;

Quentin, fair enough. 

Best - Paul 

[Reeza]

The error message should also be updated to include NOTRIM as an option in the list. Currently it's not shown but TRIMMED is included.