Hello,
I don't see the difference in error created in log by two %put statement below. Log check will detect both of them.
%macro m (a);
%if &a ^= chk %then
%do;
%put %str(ER)ROR: has occured;
%put ERROR: has occured;
%end;
%mend m;
%m(bak)
Even if there is no difference (and there could be, with quoting characters being added to the message), there is an important practical difference.
When you search the log later looking for ERROR, it would be nice for the search to be clean if there were no errors. If the macro contains the word ERROR, the search will find it. You will spend a small amount of mental energy determining that you can ignore it, because it was only part of a macro definition. But if the macro contains %STR(ER)ROR instead, the search finds nothing unless an error actually occurred.
Even if there is no difference (and there could be, with quoting characters being added to the message), there is an important practical difference.
When you search the log later looking for ERROR, it would be nice for the search to be clean if there were no errors. If the macro contains the word ERROR, the search will find it. You will spend a small amount of mental energy determining that you can ignore it, because it was only part of a macro definition. But if the macro contains %STR(ER)ROR instead, the search finds nothing unless an error actually occurred.
It's finally time to hack! Remember to visit the SAS Hacker's Hub regularly for news and updates.
Learn how use the CAT functions in SAS to join values from multiple variables into a single value.
Find more tutorials on the SAS Users YouTube channel.
Ready to level-up your skills? Choose your own adventure.