concatenation in sas using macro - macros

I have two variables with me
%let End_of_month =%sysfunc(intnx(month,'&sysdate'd,-1,e),yymmdd10.);
%stamp =00:00:00
Now, i want to create a new variable
%time_stamp = '2016-06-19 00:00:00'
In order to make this variable , i am using cat function with sysfunc
%timestamp =%sysfunc(cat("'","&End_of_month".,"&stamp.","'"));
The above code is not giving me the desired results. Could somebody tell me how do I solve this using a %sysfunc.
I am not really sure how to use %str and nstr in this statement. Please let me know how can we solve cats, cat and catx in a macro.
Thanks

You initial 2 macro variable are wrong. Then End_of_month should rather be like this
%let End_of_month =%sysfunc(intnx(month,%str(%')&sysdate%str(%'d),-1,e),yymmdd10.);
%put &End_of_month;
OR
%let End_of_month =%sysfunc(intnx(month,%sysfunc(today()),-1,e),yymmdd10.);
%put &End_of_month;
Now coming to the creating a single quotation timestamp with 00:00:00 hr:min:sec afte the date with space as the delimiter, you don't have to use base SAS functions.. simply create the variable like below
%let timestamp=%str(%')&End_of_month 00:00:00%str(%');
%put &timestamp;
Also, %stamp means a macro call which has a definition and not a variable like you've mentioned in your questions.. similarly %timestamp= .. this is syntactically wrong in SAS.. %let timestamp= does macro variable creation and %timestamp would ideally call a timestamp named macro definition..I would suggest reading the SAS Macro Language Reference.

The best way to solve this problem (if it is something you do often) is to create your own format to do so. See this answer:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/24044451/214994

You do not need to use functions to concatenate macro variables. Just expand them where ever you need them in your code. Note also that you do not need to quote string literals in macro code. To the macro processor everything is a string literal.
%let end_of_month=%sysfunc(intnx(month,"&sysdate"d,-1,e),yymmdd10.);
%let time_stamp=&end_of_month 00:00:00;
Adding double quotes is simple.
%let time_stamp="&end_of_month 00:00:00";
Adding single quotes is a pain because the macro references are not resolved inside of single quotes. You could try using %bquote(), but then the value is macro quoted, which can cause trouble. So you might need to also add %unquote().
%let time_stamp=%unquote(%bquote('&end_of_month 00:00:00'));
I have found using the dequote() function is a simple way to introduce single quotes. Start with a string that has double quotes on the outside so that the macro references work and then use %sysfunc(dequote()) to remove the double quotes.
%let time_stamp=%sysfunc(dequote("'&end_of_month 00:00:00'"));

Related

SAS %STR function not work

I am trying to use %STR function to mask % in the string. Code like this:
options symbolgen;
%let grp=%str(%C16F%);
%put group is &grp;
It doesn't work. Actually when I click the codes follow it, SAS does nothing. Nothing happens.
Do you know the reason? How to fix it?
Thank you for your help!
L.
The %STR() needs you to add extra % in front of second % in your string because otherwise it thinks you are trying use the % to escape the right parenthesis. That is why it appears nothing is running. The %LET statement is still waiting to see the end of the %str() function call and the terminal ;.
%let grp=%str(%C16F%%);
%put group is &grp;
I find it is easier to either use a data step and %superq() to make sure the value is quoted.
data _null_;
call symputx('grp','%C16F%');
run;
%let grp=%superq(grp);
Or use %qsysfunc() to call dequote() to remove the physical single quotes and add macro quoting.
%let grp=%qsysfunc(dequote('%C16F%'));

substr function with macro variable name

I am trying to use substr function in SAS macros like this:
%let hg=Name;
data gg_;
set sashelp.class;
gh=%substr(&hg,1,3);
run;
and also I tried
data gg_;
set sashelp.class;
gh=%sysfunc(substr(&hg,1,3));
run;
Here Name is the variable in sashelp.class
But I do not get the first three chars from Name variable into gh.
How do I do it?
You are mixing macro and data step logic.
Since it is a data step, use the SUBSTR() function, not %substr. If the macro variable consists of the text you want to extract then quote it, otherwise leave the macro variable unquoted.
gh=substr(&hg, 1, 3);
Note: edited to reflect comment.
If you are creating a dataset inside a macro function then you want to use the normal sas function so you just need to use substr() instead of %substr().
%let hg=Name;
data gg_;
set sashelp.class;
gh=substr(&hg,1,3);
run;

SAS Macro Variable Quoted Concatenation

I am debugging a macro I am writing that will treat a string as either a prefix or suffix of a dataset name based on user input. Then, the quoted result will be fed into another process downstream.
So if the user says Type=1 and provides the string 'data_', the output of the resulting macro variable will be 'data_%'.
I've tried a few different iterations of the below code, but can't quite get it....any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
%let Type=1;
%let TableName=data_;
data _null_;
if &Type=1 then
call symput('qTableName',%unquote(%str(%')(cats(&TableName.,"%"))%str(%')));
else if &Type=2 then
call symput('qTableName',%unquote(%str(%')(cats("%",&TableName.))%str(%')));
run;
%put &qTableName;
Looks like you are trying to add single quotes to a macro variable.
%let TableName=data_;
%let qTableName='data_%';
So in a data step you can use CATQ().
data _null_;
call symputx('qTableName',catq('1a',cats(symget('TableName'),'%')));
run;
Or in simple macro code just use %bquote() to allow you to add ' and % without preventing macro variable expansion. But you probably want to remove the macro quoting it will cause.
%let qTableName=%unquote(%bquote('&TableName%'));
Or if you only want to add the % when &TYPE=1 then perhaps you could call the IFC() function. I believe that the %sysfunc() call will remove the macro quoting.
%let Type=1;
%let qTableName=%sysfunc(ifc(&type=1,%bquote('&TableName%'),%bquote('&TableName')));

how to name dataset/variable using concatenation

I have a problem with SAS 9.2.
I'm writing a simple macro which creates dataset and name it according to the variables submitted and some other words/letters/signs, for example
%macro example(var1,var2);
data &var1 || '_word_' || &var2;
a=1;
run;
%mend;
Can anyone help?
Pipes are only for strings within SAS, not within SAS macro. So don't use them here.
SAS Macro does not interpret quotes as indicating a string, it will just read them, so leave out the quotes.
If you want to concatenate elements in macro, you just need to write them appended to each other.
To make clear where the macro variable name ends, append a dot.
This should work:
%macro example(var1,var2);
data &var1._word_&var2.;
a=1;
run;
%mend;

Using SAS macros, is there a way to create variables with names that have spaces?

I'd like to use a macro to create a variable in my dataset. The variable name has spaces. Usually in SAS I would have to enclose the name with apostrophes: 'var_name'n . In macros, I've tried to mask the apostrophes using %(str):
For instance:
%macro test(varname);
%str(')&varname.%str('n)=""
%mend;
But this doesn't seem to work.
You can use a % symbol to escape the single quote and the %unquote function to resolve the reference, like so:
%macro test(varname);
%unquote(%str(%'&varname.%'n))="";
%mend;
Derived from Sample 25076: Resolve a macro variable within single quotes