Depending on what characters you want to pass as a macro parameter value, you might need to use different SAS macro functions that provide "character masking". These macro functions are collectively called macro quoting functions. There are 7 of them, each has its own set of characters they mask, and the sets of those characters overlap between them. They also differ by their timing: A) macro compilation; or B) macro execution. You use macro compilation functions to mask characters in a string constants not containing & % or mnemonics (GT EQ OR AND etc). And you use macro execution functions otherwise.   Here are the 7 macro quoting functions: A) Work at macro compilation %STR() and %NRSTR()   B) Work at macro execution %QUOTE() and %NRQUOTE(), %BQUOTE() and %NRBQUOTE(), and %SUPERQ().   I use "pass them inside the box" analogy to explain how they work in my recent blog post Passing comma-delimited values into SAS macros and macro functions. ... View more