Hi Tom, Thanks for your patient, but I am still confused. When the %doit run, the first code would be *%abc. The first character is *, the * would be a meaningless character inside a macro and would be left to pass back to base SAS. Then, the second character is % which is a macro trigger. So, no matter how the %abc has been defined, the %abc should be called. But, from log output, we saw this macro call hasn't happened. Why? However, when %put %doit; run, this macro call exactly happened. Why? I had tried to add a semi-colon at the end of "*%put in abc;", "*%abc", and both. There is no difference. ... View more

I had inserted the Macro definition as SAS code and the code has not been colored right. Re-color as follows %macro doit; *%abc %put here; *%let x = %abc; %put value of x is &x; %mend doit; ... View more

I might ask the questions in a nuclear way. Let me ask again in another way. The macro definition %macro abc; *%put in abc; %mend abc; %macro doit; *%abc %put here; *%let x = %abc; %put value of x is &x; %mend doit; Using color to match the code to the output. Now run %doit; the log output 249 %doit ; MLOGIC(DOIT): Beginning execution. MLOGIC(DOIT): %PUT here here MLOGIC(DOIT): %LET (variable name is X) MPRINT(DOIT): *%abc MLOGIC(ABC): Beginning execution. MLOGIC(ABC): %PUT in abc in abc MLOGIC(ABC): Ending execution. MLOGIC(DOIT): %PUT value of x is &x SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable X resolves to * ; value of x is * ; MLOGIC(DOIT): Ending execution. MPRINT(ABC): * From the output, we can see that the green and blue code had executed. Why the red code "*%abc" was ignored? Now let run %put %doit; The log output 250 %put %doit; MLOGIC(DOIT): Beginning execution. MLOGIC(ABC): Beginning execution. MLOGIC(ABC): %PUT in abc in abc ** MLOGIC(ABC): Ending execution. MLOGIC(DOIT): %PUT here here MLOGIC(DOIT): %LET (variable name is X) MPRINT(DOIT): * MLOGIC(ABC): Beginning execution. MLOGIC(ABC): %PUT in abc in abc MLOGIC(ABC): Ending execution. MLOGIC(DOIT): %PUT value of x is &x SYMBOLGEN: Macro variable X resolves to * ; value of x is * ; MLOGIC(DOIT): Ending execution. All of the red, green, and blue code executed. Why the red code executed this time?   ... View more