passing arguments to Python using X?

[desertsp]

I'm looking for assistance making a call to Python scripts (from SAS) while passing arguments.

Here's some SAS code.

%LET optionA = C:\temp\some_filename.csv;
%LET optionB = some text with spaces;
%LET optionC = text_with_underscores; 
%LET optionD = ;  /* an empty value */
%LET optionE = 15;

OPTIONS XWAIT;
X "C:\temp\test.py &optionA &optionB &optionC &optionD &optionE";

And here's test.py

import sys

optionA = sys.argv[1]
optionB = sys.argv[2]
optionC = sys.argv[3]
optionD = sys.argv[4]
optionE = sys.argv[5]

print 'optionA: ' + optionA
print 'optionB: ' + optionB
print 'optionC: ' + optionC
print 'optionD: ' + optionD
print 'optionE: ' + optionE

print 'Press Enter to return to SAS'
raw_input()

Running the SAS code results in the Python script executing:

As you can see, optionB ends up being communicated as four separate one-word arguments.

Could someone please point out if there's a universal way of handling this, so each argument can contain any permissible combination of letters, numbers, and symbols, and is still treated as a single argument? I suppose some kind of escaping could be used, or maybe there's a completely different approach?

Thanks!

[Kurt_Bremser]

Try this:

X "C:\temp\test.py '&optionA' '&optionB' '&optionC' '&optionD' '&optionE'";

Because you have double quotes on the "outside", the single quotes contained "inside" do not prevent the resolution of macro variables.

[desertsp]

Thanks Kurt.

Here's what I get now:

But I think you've pointed me in the right direction. I now just need to find a way in Python to parse arguments at single-quotes rather than spaces, which shouldn't be a problem.