Trying to rearrange variables alphabetically. Warning: Apparent symbolic reference not resolved?

[DougHold]

I am trying to rearrange alphabetically these variables using a macro. But I get an error  - Apparent symbolic reference not resolved?

DATA My_data;
INPUT A C Z M L ;
DATALINES;
1 3 26 13 12
;
RUN;

proc sql noprint;
select name into :vars separated by ' '
from dictionary.columns
where libname = 'WORK' and memname = 'My_data'
order by name;
quit;

data My_data_rearranged;
retain &vars;
set My_data;
run;

WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference VARS not resolved.
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a name, ;, _ALL_, _CHARACTER_,
_CHAR_, _NUMERIC_.

ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.

[Reeza]

where libname = 'WORK' and upper(memname) = 'MY_DATA'

You likely have an empty macro variable because of the case mismatch.

You can test it by adding this line before your data step:

%PUT &vars.;

---

@DougHold wrote:

I am trying to rearrange alphabetically these variables using a macro. But I get an error  - Apparent symbolic reference not resolved?

DATA My_data;
INPUT A C Z M L ;
DATALINES;
1 3 26 13 12
;
RUN;

proc sql noprint;
select name into :vars separated by ' '
from dictionary.columns
where libname = 'WORK' and memname = 'My_data'
order by name;
quit;

data My_data_rearranged;
retain &vars;
set My_data;
run;

WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference VARS not resolved.
ERROR 22-322: Syntax error, expecting one of the following: a name, ;, _ALL_, _CHARACTER_,
_CHAR_, _NUMERIC_.

ERROR 200-322: The symbol is not recognized and will be ignored.

---

[DougHold]

Thank you for the tip on testing with %PUT &vars.;

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

Always good to look at the ENTIRE log in cases like this:

 80         proc sql noprint;
 81         select name into :vars separated by ' '
 82         from dictionary.columns
 83         where libname = 'WORK' and memname = 'My_data'
 84         order by name;
 NOTE: No rows were selected.
 85         quit;

There's the problem. In DICTIONARY.COLUMNS, you have found zero matches. Why? The value of variable memname is always in all capitals, so your code says find memname='My_data' and it doesn't find any matches.

Having said that, why even bother re-arranging columns? It's extra work, but SAS doesn't care, your programs will work regardless of the order of the columns.

[DougHold]

Thank you, this was it