Using Percent Sign in X Statement

[Junyong]

Suppose I want to open a text file have.txt using notepad.exe in SAS. Then, the code is

x notepad c:\users\junyong\desktop\have.txt;

However, I found that using environment variables (percent signs) as follows causes an error—not in SAS but in notepad.exe.

x notepad %userprofile%\desktop\have.txt;

What should I do to properly pass the percent signs and, therefore, the environment variables in this case?

[Tom]

Not sure I understand what error you are having.  How is it causing trouble for Notepad?  Does the environment variable not get resolved?  Are you sure the environment variable exists?  Does the value of the environment variable contain spaces?

Try adding double quotes for Windows to recognize the name as a single string.  Also add single quotes to prevent SAS from trying to execute a macro named USERPROFILE.

x 'notepad "%userprofile%\desktop\have.txt"';

[Junyong]

%userprofile% surely exists and is a Windows environment variable. It contains no space currently—c:\users\junyong\.

The first code—with no percent sign—executes notepad.exe and opens c:\users\junyong\desktop\have.txt correctly.

I want to shorten the full path using the existing Windows environment variable %userprofile% (therefore, %userprofile%\desktop\have.txt).

The second code—with percent signs—executes notepad.exe but fails to find c:\users\junyong\desktop\have.txt.

Instead, if there exists c:\program files\sashome\sasfoundation\9.4\%userprofile%\desktop\have.txt, which is weird, then the notepad.exe opens it.

How can I make SAS pass the correct path to notepad.exe rather than the weird path using X statements?

I tried your suggestion with quotation marks but failed to open the file again.

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Try using the %SYSGET() macro, or SYSGET() function to find the value of USERPROFILE.

First check if USERPROFILE exists and what value it has.

%put Length of USERPROFILE is $sysfunc(envlen(USERPROFILE)).;
%put Value of USERPROFILE is %sysget(USERPROFILE).;

Then try using it in your X command:

x notepad %sysget(USERPROFILE)\desktop\have.txt;
x "notepad %sysget(USERPROFILE)\desktop\have.txt";

Also why are you running NOTEPAD on the file?  If you want to read why not just read it?  If you want to edit it why not just edit it in the program editor (or the "enhanced" program editor) of Display Manager?

[Junyong]

Thanks—resolving the environment variable in SAS beforehand worked. I am actually using a external software other than notepad.exe, but my problem was related to the environment variable issue. I posted this as a minimum working example because notepad.exe is common.

[Tom]

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@Junyong wrote:

Thanks—resolving the environment variable in SAS beforehand worked. I am actually using a external software other than notepad.exe, but my problem was related to the environment variable issue. I posted this as a minimum working example because notepad.exe is common.

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I highly recommend using the PIPE method as posted by @Kurt_Bremser .  That way your SAS program can see any messages generated by the program and/or the operating system.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Looks like the shell used by the X statement does not resolve the userprofile environment variable.

Run zhe command with a filename pipe and stderr redirection:

filename oscmd pipe 'notepad %userprofile%\desktop\have.txt 2>&1';

data _null_;
infile oscmd;
input;
put _infile_;
run;

and see if the log provides a clue.

[Junyong]

Unlike x, pipe works well. For example,

data _null_;
	infile "notepad %userprofile%\desktop\asdf.txt" pipe;
run;

executes notepad.exe and opens the asdf.txt correctly.