It seems that the macro program parameter will be entered as a sysparm delimited by a backslash. %scan returns the n'th word from a string delimited, in your case, by a backslash.
It resolves to the value you set to the -sysparm option at SAS invocation. It's the most common way to pass input parameters to a SAS batch job. It could look like this:
sas -autoexec '/opt/sas/sas9/autoexec.sas' -config '/opt/sas/sas9/autoexec.sas' -sysparm '2008Q1\01Jan2008\03Jan2008\xxxx'
I want to run this in the mainframe OS in batch mode. What kind of a statement will I use to invoke sysparm varibale. How will I be specifying the value to it?
If you could explain with an exapmle that would be great.
You will need to review your site's SAS batch JCL procedure (PROC) to determine whether or not you have an explicit SYSPARM= JCL symbol or whether you must code an OPTIONS= JCL symbolic override, and supply the SAS OPTIONS/CONFIG setting for SYSPARM= within the OPTIONS parameter.
The SAS support website http://support.sas.com/ has this very specific gem to answer your question: