@kc_sas wrote: Thank you for the inputs. the macro variable &subjid_trtp. is about subject IDs, I think it doesn't matter in this case. It may be the most important part of this question. The VALUES you show on the Y axis do not appear to come form the  variable that you are attempting to display unicode values with at all. So it will NEVER show them if &subjid_trtp is pointing to the variable Tumor_types. The values you show for Tumor_types does not include the unicode, the escape or even the complete name as far as I can tell.   If you plot the wrong named variable do not expect to get the correct output. ... View more

You don't need to specify the ending of a list when creating macro variables with SQL. proc sql noprint; select distinct b into : grp1 - from B; quit;  This will create the number of macro variables required automatically.    proc sql; select distinct age into :age1- from sashelp.class; quit; %put &sqlobs; *if you need it for future loops; %let nobs = &sqlobs; *check macro variables created; %put &age1.; *age6 = 16; %put &&age&sqlobs.; ... View more

it works, thanks a lot! ... View more