Within a Macro - create a dynamic macro variable for the current time

[Brunts23]

Seems simple enough –  An hour later and various attempts, no further forward, so bow to the experts:-

Data _Null_;
     call symputx('C_Time',%sysfunc(time(),timeampm.));
     %put The current time is &=C_Time;
     %put The Non-macro time is %sysfunc(time(),timeampm.);
Run;

Excerpt from the Log

33       !  Data _Null_;
34                   call symputx('C_Time',%sysfunc(time(),timeampm.));
NOTE: Line generated by the macro function "SYSFUNC".
34         11:43:04 AM
             _
             388
             200
ERROR 388-185: Expecting an arithmetic operator.

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

35                   %put The current time is &=C_Time;
WARNING: Apparent symbolic reference C_TIME not resolved.
The current time is C_Time
36                   %put The Non-macro time is %sysfunc(time(),timeampm.);
The Non-macro time is 11:43:04 AM
37              Run;

Even if I wrap the second argument with a Put to specifically convert Numeric to Character – same result.

What is the answer?

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

The second argument to the call symput routine must be a string, so use double quotes.

And move the %put statements after the run, as they would otherwise be resolved before the data step runs, and throw an error.

Data _Null_;
call symputx('C_Time',"%sysfunc(time(),timeampm.)");
Run;

%put The current time is &=C_Time;
%put The Non-macro time is %sysfunc(time(),timeampm.);

[andreas_lds]

If you are inside a macro, then using

%let C_Time = %sysfunc(time(),timeampm.);

should solve the problem. If you want to use a data step, replacing %sysfunc with

 call symputx('C_Time', put(time(),timeampm.));

should be all you need.

[Tom]

You seem a little confused about what the macro processor does and when it does it.  It modifies the code and passes on to SAS to execute.  So your %PUT statements in the middle of a data step will execute BEFORE the data step executes.

You could either use macro code to make your macro variable.

%let C_Time=%sysfunc(time(),timeampm.);
%put The current time is &=C_Time;

Or use SAS code to make the macro variable.

data _null_;
  now=time();
  put 'The Non-macro time is ' now timeampm.;
  call symputx('C_Time',put(now,timeampm.));
run;

If you did want to use the value of the macro variable to generate some SAS code them make sure it is generating valid SAS code.

data _null_;
  put "The value of C_TIME is &c_time".
run;

[Brunts23]

I'm slowly completing the Advanced SAS training and trying to work things out in my head as to what works and why - Thanks for the input