Using SYMPUTX to define the macro variable worked and eliminated the problem.  Thanks to all for the assistance.   Once I used SYMPUTX the  array statement :   ARRAY [*]  COUNT1 - COUNT&SIZE_NEEDED resolved and ran.   The problem as described above is that SYMPUT retains the leading blanks on the macro variable and pads them into the resolved reference.   i.e    %LET SIZE_NEEDED = 11 ;   %PUT "SIZE NEEDED:" &SIZE_NEEDED   resolves in the log to : SIZE NEEDED: '               11'   with  multiple blank spaces preceding the 11.  That prevents correct resolution in later calls to the macro variable.   This does answer my question but further questions arise :    -I note printing the macro var in a TITLE statement WILL strip the leading blanks and the padding will not be shown. If it strips them here it may also do so in other places without explicitly noting that.   How the length of the macro variable is determined is an additional question. "The length of a macro variable is determined by the text assigned to it instead of a specific length declaration. So its length varies with each value it contains." http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/mcrolref/61885/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a002293823.htm   That doesn't appear to be the case here -- assigning a numeric to a macro var using SYMPUT results in a length of 8 bytes regardless of the text. Passing the number 8 results in the same length macro variable as 100,000. I assume this is from using SYMPUT somehow.   I also don't understand why the printed value in the log shows such a large number of blank spaces, many more than 8, for the resolved reference as put to the log?           ... View more

Here is a log file of code and log messages, if it works.       ... View more

Ok, the quotes around the 10 were simply to indicate I knew the macro is text, not a literal numeric.   The macro variable does resolve correctly.   Sorry, cutting and pasting both code and results is ridiculous with SAS University, I have tried to attach a code, log and results as a file below (failed I guess). There is a lot of stuff there, my question is limited to definition of the array size.   data size ;     set treefreq end=eof ;       if eof = 1 then do ;          call symput("SIZE_NEEDED",_N_) ;         output ;      end ;   proc print ;     title "Size Needed is &size_needed" ;   That works perfectly and &size_needed prints correctly as 11 (the correct value).     This is my question on immediately following code:    data two ;       set treefreq  ;       array countree {*} count_1 - count_&size_needed ;   ***<<<this fails immediately****;   run ;   The error I get in the log is:   ERROR: MISSING NUMERIC SUFFIX ON NUMBERED VARIABLE LIST (count_1 - count_ )   I figure because text does not resolve as numeric. Like I said I tried a couple of things -- putting in periods to get resolution but nothing worked.  I am not referencing the array correctly in some way.   How do I use a macro variable to reference an array element ?                 ... View more

What about a UNIQUE clause in your SELECT SQL statement right up front?   SELECT UNIQUE id ...     You could also do something simple like this :   proc sort  data = VIEWNAME  out = sorted ; ***I think the VIEW name can be inserted directly here???**;       by ID someother_var   ;   data select_unique  ;     set sorted  ;     by ID someother_var  ;     if first.ID      ;   This will select a unique value for ID based on the sorted value of some other variable(s).  The most obvious example would be to sort by date. Selecting the first observation will automatically select the most recent date as and the observation will be unique for ID in the resulting view or dataset.        ... View more

The SQL trick is a good one! I was unaware that SQL statements could be used in SAS code like this, that opens up a lot of ideas.   I think this one wins the prize, using an intermediate data step will obviously work as well. If I needed a solution that's what I would probably wind up using.   The SQL solution is the kind of thing I was looking for and caps the learning experience for this question. Thanks to all contributors. ... View more

Well, I have the solution by using SYMGET and it works fine.     Here's a working example of what I am wondering :     1 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK; 72 73 74 %let PassTitle = MyNewTitle ; 75 76 data books ; 77 author = "KOWHEAD" ; 78 publisher = "Cow Books" ; 79 date = 2018 ; 80 D_PassTitle = symget('PassTitle') ;     **solution passing macro value to data variable works fine**; 81 82   NOTE: The data set WORK.BOOKS has 1 observations and 4 variables. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.00 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds     83 proc print ; 84     var D_PassTitle author publisher date ; 85      title "Case example: PassTitle is &PassTitle" ; 86 87 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK; 100   Output is produced correctly:   Case example: PassTitle is MyNewTitle      <<<resolves correctly in title ;   Obs D_PassTitle author publisher date 1 MyNewTitle KOWHEAD Cow Books 2018  <<<<The data Passed Macro Variable is now in the output   The question is there a simpler/alternate way to directly reference the macro variable in the VAR statement and have it resolve correctly without the need for the SYMGET.  For example, suppose the dataset was locked and I could not change it  I need to process thru some macro loop and have the macro value printed row by row alongside the data listing.  An intermediate data step would work but I was wondering if there might be some other syntax I could use that would allow this.   i.e      VAR   &PassTitle   Author pub date  ( in some syntactical form that resolves it correctly) ... View more

Here's a log. Looking at it it seems obvious that the call to &var1 will resolve to "Mytitle" and fail in the print var statement since there is no variable called MyTitle.    This problem occurred to me when I was thinking about how to get the value of a macro variable into the PROC PRINT. Typically, I just reference the value in a TITLE statement and that often covers it. But what if I want the value directly in the PROC PRINT itself? For example,  output to a PDF ?   You could use :    Data ;      DataStepTitle  =symget('Var1' );  **syntax is no ampersand and in quotes**;   and then      proc print ;          VAR DataStepTitle ;    should then print the value MyTitle as wanted.   but I was looking and wondering if there is an alternate way, something along the lines of       VAR "&title1"    -- which doesn't work.     1 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK; 72 73 74 %let var1 = Mytitle ; 75 76 data books ; 77 author = "KOWHEAD" ; 78 publisher = "Cow Books" ; 79 date = 2018 ; 80 81   NOTE: The data set WORK.BOOKS has 1 observations and 3 variables. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.00 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds     82 proc print ; 83 var &var1 author publisher date ; ERROR: Variable MYTITLE not found. 84 title "Case example: var1 is &var1" ; 85 86 OPTIONS NONOTES NOSTIMER NOSOURCE NOSYNTAXCHECK; 99         ... View more

Yes, I note the syntax error and have corrected it. ... View more

You can do a test to see if the dataset exists and conditionally execute based on the result.   One advantage to this over the other methods suggested is that you could explicitly report which data sets are missing.   But the other answers seem easier if this is not a concern.   http://support.sas.com/kb/24/670.html   %macro checkds(dsn); %if %sysfunc(exist(&dsn)) %then %do; proc print data = &dsn; run; %end; %else %do; data _null_; file print; put #3 @10 "Data set &dsn. does not exist"; run; %end; %mend checkds;     ... View more