You do not "pass a macro variable to a macro", you pass a string. When you call %t(<text>) or %t(name=<text>), the text is stored in a temporary (local) macro variable name as by how you defined your macro. If you want to emulate "passing" a global macro variable to a macro, you simply declare the macro variable outside (either in an upper nesting level for multiple macro nesting, or simply outside the macro a code with a single macro). You cannot pass a macro variable by reference, at least not conceptually since name= reads a text string into a new local macro variable called name. /* First example - emulating passing a macro variable by reference - that is, being able to modify it in the macro */ %let name=work.myds; /* implicit %global name; */ /* some sas statements */ %macro t(); /* no name= in the macro definition as you wish NOT to create a local macro variable name so as not to lose the ability to work with the global macro variable name */ data &name; x=1; %let name=test; run; %mend; %t(); %put &name; Since the macro variable name is only declared global (or well, at a higher nesting level for embeded macros), the %let name=test; applies to the same macro variable already defined rather than creating a new local version. /* Second example - good practice-declaring all local macro variables as local in case they existed in the global environment */ %let name=work.myds; /* implicit %global name x y; */ %let x=10; %let y=10; /* some sas statements */ %macro t(); %local x; %let x=1; %let y=1; data &name; x=&x; %put x inside = &x; %put y inside = &y; run; %mend; %t(); %put x outside = &x; %put y outside = &y; /* Third example - passing a global macro variable content in a macro*/ %let name=work.myds; /* implicit %global name; */ %macro t(name=); /* implicit %local name; */ data &name; /* uses the local copy of name */ x=1; %let name=INSIDE; %put '&name' inside the macro=&name; run; %mend; %t(name=&name); /* This effectively resolves &name as work.myds and stores this string in the LOCAL to t() macro variable name */ %put '&name' outside the macro=&name; Anyway long story short, as people mentionned above, you did not need name as a global macro variable in the sample code you've provided. If you ever wish to emulate passing a macro variable by reference so that you can modify it inside a macro, you must declare it before the macro. However, should you declare a %local macro of the same name inside the macro, you will no longer have access to the global scope variable with the same name inside the macro and thus will no longer be able to modify it inside your macro. In most case scenario though, simply doing %t(name=&name); that is, passing the content of global macro variable name to the local macro variable name will achieve your desired results since you do not intend to modify the global macro variable. Hope this helps. Vincent ... View more

Reeza, Was your test on a 32-bits OS or 64-bits? I had no problem doing it either here at work but we're on Win32 and the proc export procedure documentation, as by the few bits that I've pasted above, don't support DBMS=EXCEL (or excel2007 for that matter) on a 64 bit OS. Vincent ... View more

Could you post your error log? The following code inspired by yours works for me... ods pdf file="c:\test.pdf"; proc report data=sashelp.heart(obs=20) NOWD STYLE(HEADER)=[BACKGROUND=LIGHTBLUE];      column status ageatdeath;      define status / "test column1" ORDER CENTER;      define ageatdeath / "test missing formating" DISPLAY CENTER;      compute ageatdeath;           if ageatdeath=. then call define(_ROW_, "style", "style=[BACKGROUND=LIGHTGREY]");      endcomp; run; ods pdf close; P.S. if you copy pasted your code here, I shall mention that the last DEFINE line ends with column instead of semi column...that could be your error. Vincent ... View more

I'm not sure this will be of much help but from SAS documentation on the PROC EXPORT procedure Excel* Excel 97, 2000, 2002, 2003 or 2007 spreadsheet (using the LIBNAME statement) .xls .xlsb .xlsx * Not available for Microsoft Windows 64-Bit edition. XLS Excel 97, 2000, 2002, or 2003 spreadsheet (using file formats) .xls EXCELCS Excel spreadsheet connecting remotely through PC FIles Server .xls .xlsb Options for the DBMS= So anyway, I haven't had any similar scenario to relate to but if you have no constraints for the excel sheets to be saved in excel 2007 format, you could possibly use the DBMS=XLS. I suppose that something similar is used in the back scenes when you use proc export dbms=excel2007 running on W64. There may even be a warning or a note in the log stating that an engine different than EXCEL or EXCEL2007 was used. You may have to delete old file/create new file if the existing file format is saved as excel2007 instead of 1997-2003 for DBMS=XLS to work. Good luck Vincent ... View more

Try using title move=(x,y) "Normality Test - &tname2" font="Calibri";  /* replace x,y until you find a positioning that suits your need. */ I can't figure out what scale x and y are using but anyway it should do the trick with some trial and error. Vincent ... View more

I'm not 100% sure it works with the INFILE statements but I believe the reason why your original approach reads the 7th obs only for the first file opened is because it is meant to do so. At least so it is for dataset options. You could try using the system option FIRSTOBS= for it to apply to each set. Depending on how SAS processes INFILE statements with a wild card, it may produce the expected results options firstobs=7; DATA STRANGEDATA ;   LENGTH MYINFILE  $ 99 ;     INFILE 'X:\ES\EA\Wildlife\2000\abc*.txt' FILENAME=MYINFILE LRECL=35000 PAD ;        INPUT DEPTH @@ ;        IF DEPTH > 0 ;          SAVEFILE=MYINFILE ;          Y=COMPRESS(SAVEFILE,,'DK') ;          SASDATE=MDY(SUBSTR(Y,9,2), SUBSTR(Y,11,2), SUBSTR(Y,5,4)) ;          FORMAT SASDATE DATE9. ;       OUTPUT ; RUN; It may or may not work but takes a minute to test. Otherwise, I can't think of any other way than to use macro to loop on all files in a root folder, do a scan condition on the name so that they are each of the form abc*.txt and then use that do build a %do %end loop to emulate writing every single infile statement each with the firstobs=7 statement. I'm affraid however that SAS considers an infile statement with a wild card as a single file and thus the use of system options won't work. Vincent ... View more

You can't convert directly a created variable from alpha to numeric other than when you input it so you will need to create a new variable and, once satisfied with the result, drop the old one. format newdatevar date9.; newdatevar = input(trim(curdatevar), YYMMDD8.); once convinced that the result is good, you add data mydata(rename=(newdatevar=curdatevar);      set mydata;      format newdatevar date9.;      newdatevar = input(trim(curdatevar), YYMMDD8.);      drop curdatevar; run; So that the newly created variable can bear the same variable name as the old character variable. Can be done in a datastep, a few procedures or with proce SQL, the syntax is slightly different but the concept is the same, use input to read a char string as a given format, here YYMMDD8. and make sure that you specify the format of your variable as otherwise you will have the integer representation of the number of day since 01/01/1960 of that date (as it is stored) instead of your date9. Vincent ... View more