Trying to use SAS macro to create variable name

[carl01]

HI, I'm trying to use sas macro to create a dynamic variable name. Below is the snippet of my code:

%macro test123;
%do i= 0 %to 76;
if ((Fdevyr - Flye) * 4 + int((Fdevm - 1) / 3) - int((FM - 1) / 3)) = &i. then do;
if component = 'Counts' then Amount_0&i. = count;
end;
%end;
%mend test123;

this code creates a new Variable - Amount_00, Amount_01..upto Amount_76.and so on but instead I would like to create the variable names as Amount_01,Amount_02...Amount_77 using the above code. 

I have tried using Amount_0&i+1 but I think that's not a valid way of using it.

I have tried %let j= &i.+1 inside my Do Loop but I think we cannot have another macro variable inside a macro.

I'm a beginner to SAS and any suggestions are much appreciated. Thank you

[novinosrin]

I am failing to understand why you would want to loop from 0 to 76 when you apparently want var names suffixes from 1 to 77?

If I were to assume you want a leading zero for values that are single digit numbers, you could address that with a Z format to standardize that, i.e 

/*First Check the values in the log to see if this is what you are after*/
%macro test123;
%do i= 1 %to 77;
%put %sysfunc(putn(&i,z2.));
%end;
%mend test123;

/*If the above is what are after then plug that*/

%macro test123;
%do i= 1 %to 77;
if ((Fdevyr - Flye) * 4 + int((Fdevm - 1) / 3) - int((FM - 1) / 3)) = &i. then do;
if component = 'Counts' then Amount_%sysfunc(putn(&i,z2.)) = count;
end;
%end;
%mend test123;

[Tom]

How are you using that code that macro generates? 

Why is the macro any better than just defining an ARRAY in the data step that is using that code?

[Patrick · Accepted solution]

Something like below should do what you want.

%macro test123;
  %do i= 1 %to 77;
    %if &i>1 %then else;
    if ((Fdevyr - Flye) * 4 + int((Fdevm - 1) / 3) - int((FM - 1) / 3)) = %eval(&i.-1) then
      do;
        if component = 'Counts' then
          Amount_0&i. = count;
      end;
  %end;
%mend test123;

[carl01]

Thanks Patrick

[Patrick]

---

@carl01 wrote:

Thanks Patrick

---

ehhmm... .then may-be you should mark my answer as the solution....
From a coding perspective using a SAS datastep array instead of macro coding is "better".

[RichardDeVen]

I'm a beginner to SAS

That is a good justification for not jumping into Macro.  There is huge utility in the DATA Step language without a need for any macro.

Far less confusing would be to use a variable based array to create the variable names amount_00-amount_76.  Your complex formula would compute the index for assignment.

data want;

  array amts amount00-amount76;

  index = ((Fdevyr - Flye) * 4 + int((Fdevm - 1) / 3) - int((FM - 1) / 3));
  if component = 'Counts' then amts(index) = count;

run;